▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place
It was October the 3rd, the day of my boyfriend and I’s 1 year anniversary. The release of the new Joker movie in 2019.
We got off at Causeway Bay MTR station and stepped out of exit E, just to be greeted with a sea of people; it was around 6PM so I could understand why there was a lot of people around — it was rush hour — but also Causeway Bay is pretty known for having herds of crowds either way. The cinema we went to was next to a couple of jewelry shops and was right in front of H&M too. There were two escalators that we had to go up before we could actually get to the different houses showcasing the different movies, the first escalator brings you up to the level of where you can purchase your tickets. The cool thing about this place was that it wasn’t purely a cinema — it was a sort of mini shopping center but instead of shops, it was lanes of restaurants.
We went ahead and bought the tickets from the ticket counter, fortunately for the both of us — we had student discount. By this time it was already 10 minutes before the movie was going to start, so we walked over to the second escalator that brought us to the entrance of all the houses as well as the food counter. We decided to get some food for the movie, so as soon as we got off the escalator; we went straight for the food. While in line, I was telling my boyfriend how excited I was for this movie to come out — I’m a big comics fan and one of my favourite villains in the comic book world is the Joker. I’m also the type of person who doesn’t watch trailers, I want to be able to enjoy the movie to its’ full potential with no idea or concept in mind of how the movie would go or play out. Eventually we got our food: a large popcorn and a large drink to share.
We proceeded to the ticketing guy before we entered the house in which the film was showing and since we got student discounted tickets, we also had to show our student IDs. Once that was over, we finally made our way through the hall that leads to different houses, we passed by several movie posters that are of movies that are coming soon before entering the theatre.
Inside the cinema theatre the lights were all still on for people to get into their seats since the movie wasn’t going to start in the next 5 minutes, the seats we took are near the back middle — we both usually like sitting in that spot because it’s basically the perfect angle where your neck won’t strain from sitting and watching for an hour or more.
After 2 hours the movie was finished. Overall it was an amazing and invigorating film, typically in comic-related movies there is a chance that there is a post-credit scene; a couple of people stayed behind — us included.
Once we left the theatre and went down the escalator; most of the lights were off, it visibly was darker since it was late at night already and we could see more of the street now since people have already gone home. I always found watching movies in a cinema late at night quite surreal, it’s just something about exiting a large, dark theatre after sitting in it for 2 hours glued to a 45-foot screen that feels… weird.
Jessica Pauline Camille Ablog Mercado 