Movie theaters in Japan
Last weekend the latest Harry Potter movie came out in Japan. So my friend Kanako and I decided to go see it.
I thought I'd share some differences between theaters in America and theaters in Japan.
First, I have to say I'm a huge fan of going to the movie theater. I know it's expensive, and I understand the complaint about having to watch a film with a roomful of strangers, some of whom aren't really polite.
There have, indeed, been times when I wanted to shove the cellphone my neighbor is looking at to check the time halfway through a movie down their throat. Do they not realize that glow from their phone's screen can, who can believe, be seen by almost everyone in the theater?
Also I hate people who eat out of bags that crinkle. I'm one such person. I try to remedy my love of food stored in crinkly packages by opening them during previews. Other people don't seem to consider the other people in the theater, though, and thus decide to massage their fingers on the bag during the movie's most dramatic scene.
But I still love going to the movies. I don't personally own a movie screen that can take up a wall, nor do I own surround sound. I don't have the comfortable seat with a cup holder, and I don't have my own personal audience.
What I like about watching a film in a group is that sometimes everyone around me finds something funny that I don't, and it makes me rethink whatever had happened that they had found funny. Sometimes the audience gasps or cries when I don't, or vice-versa. I find it interesting. And, of course, it's always fun to laugh in a crowd of people laughing rather than by yourself.
Japan seems to take the movie-going experience more seriously. I think they're the future of how movie theaters in America will look like.
In Japan everyone already knows it's much cheaper to rent a DVD than to see a movie. So movie theaters have become more high-brow as a result. It's an entire experience rather than a way to pass the time.
First off, the price of tickets is absurd. I paid 1,800 yen (roughly $18) to watch Harry Potter. That's one ticket. I find this depressing.
Theaters in Japan also have concession stands, but I still hoard snacks purchased at the nearest convenience store in my purse. I can fit a nice bottle of pop and a bag of cookies or candy in my purse without anyone noticing.
When you buy your ticket in Japan, you get to choose what seat you sit in rather than it being a free-for-all. Like buying an airline ticket. The ticket person will show you a seating chart and tell you which seats are already booked and which ones aren't.
And, so far as I've seen, the Japanese are huge on honoring the assigned seating. Even when the theater is half full or nearly empty, I still watch people checking their tickets, then finding their assigned seat.
The theater usually has a classy waiting area for you to sit in until your movie starts, assuming you didn't buy the ticket minutes before the start time. There's a Warner Brothers operated movie theater that I went to once in a city called Moriya where there was a really cool fountain in the waiting area and random lights that danced across the walls and floor like it was a club. All with posh seats, too.
In the theater people are generally quiet. I have yet to hear someone start shouting at the screen or hear boys being obnoxious. Maybe I'm just picking the wrong movies, but it's always been a relatively tame crowd I sit with. I have seen the occasional cell phone screen light up the darkened theater, but that's about it.
For movies that come from America, the Japanese have two systems for presenting the film. One is to dub the entire thing over in Japanese. The other is to subtitle it. I asked Kanako which the Japanese prefer, and she said most prefer subtitles because it is purer to the original work. Dubbing, she said, is for kids to watch the film since they can't read the subtitles.
There was one time I wanted to watch Toy Story 3 in theaters with one of my English teachers, but she sneered at the theater options when she found out it was only available dubbed. I was personally curious to hear Buzz and Woody speak in Japanese, but she said it wasn't worth our time to see. We ended up watching Inception, subtitled, instead.
When the movie is finished, the lights do not go up until the credits stop rolling. The Japanese will, almost 90 percent of the time that I've witnessed, sit there for the entire credits. Even if, like with Harry Potter, the credits are in English.
After the movie, or while you're waiting for your movie to start, you can visit the gift shop.
Now this is something I really like. A gift shop in a movie theater. That's seriously some brilliant marketing. You've just seen a film you fell in love with, and oh look there's a key chain from the film. Why hasn't America caught on to this? I think American theaters could make a huge profit from it.
After Harry Potter we went to the theater's gift shop and found a variety of things to buy concerning Harry Potter. A standard is to sell a plastic folder since kids use them for school. I always like the cell phone charms they have.
I thought I'd share some differences between theaters in America and theaters in Japan.
First, I have to say I'm a huge fan of going to the movie theater. I know it's expensive, and I understand the complaint about having to watch a film with a roomful of strangers, some of whom aren't really polite.
There have, indeed, been times when I wanted to shove the cellphone my neighbor is looking at to check the time halfway through a movie down their throat. Do they not realize that glow from their phone's screen can, who can believe, be seen by almost everyone in the theater?
Also I hate people who eat out of bags that crinkle. I'm one such person. I try to remedy my love of food stored in crinkly packages by opening them during previews. Other people don't seem to consider the other people in the theater, though, and thus decide to massage their fingers on the bag during the movie's most dramatic scene.
But I still love going to the movies. I don't personally own a movie screen that can take up a wall, nor do I own surround sound. I don't have the comfortable seat with a cup holder, and I don't have my own personal audience.
What I like about watching a film in a group is that sometimes everyone around me finds something funny that I don't, and it makes me rethink whatever had happened that they had found funny. Sometimes the audience gasps or cries when I don't, or vice-versa. I find it interesting. And, of course, it's always fun to laugh in a crowd of people laughing rather than by yourself.
Japan seems to take the movie-going experience more seriously. I think they're the future of how movie theaters in America will look like.
In Japan everyone already knows it's much cheaper to rent a DVD than to see a movie. So movie theaters have become more high-brow as a result. It's an entire experience rather than a way to pass the time.
First off, the price of tickets is absurd. I paid 1,800 yen (roughly $18) to watch Harry Potter. That's one ticket. I find this depressing.
Theaters in Japan also have concession stands, but I still hoard snacks purchased at the nearest convenience store in my purse. I can fit a nice bottle of pop and a bag of cookies or candy in my purse without anyone noticing.
When you buy your ticket in Japan, you get to choose what seat you sit in rather than it being a free-for-all. Like buying an airline ticket. The ticket person will show you a seating chart and tell you which seats are already booked and which ones aren't.
And, so far as I've seen, the Japanese are huge on honoring the assigned seating. Even when the theater is half full or nearly empty, I still watch people checking their tickets, then finding their assigned seat.
The theater usually has a classy waiting area for you to sit in until your movie starts, assuming you didn't buy the ticket minutes before the start time. There's a Warner Brothers operated movie theater that I went to once in a city called Moriya where there was a really cool fountain in the waiting area and random lights that danced across the walls and floor like it was a club. All with posh seats, too.
In the theater people are generally quiet. I have yet to hear someone start shouting at the screen or hear boys being obnoxious. Maybe I'm just picking the wrong movies, but it's always been a relatively tame crowd I sit with. I have seen the occasional cell phone screen light up the darkened theater, but that's about it.
For movies that come from America, the Japanese have two systems for presenting the film. One is to dub the entire thing over in Japanese. The other is to subtitle it. I asked Kanako which the Japanese prefer, and she said most prefer subtitles because it is purer to the original work. Dubbing, she said, is for kids to watch the film since they can't read the subtitles.
There was one time I wanted to watch Toy Story 3 in theaters with one of my English teachers, but she sneered at the theater options when she found out it was only available dubbed. I was personally curious to hear Buzz and Woody speak in Japanese, but she said it wasn't worth our time to see. We ended up watching Inception, subtitled, instead.
When the movie is finished, the lights do not go up until the credits stop rolling. The Japanese will, almost 90 percent of the time that I've witnessed, sit there for the entire credits. Even if, like with Harry Potter, the credits are in English.
After the movie, or while you're waiting for your movie to start, you can visit the gift shop.
Now this is something I really like. A gift shop in a movie theater. That's seriously some brilliant marketing. You've just seen a film you fell in love with, and oh look there's a key chain from the film. Why hasn't America caught on to this? I think American theaters could make a huge profit from it.
After Harry Potter we went to the theater's gift shop and found a variety of things to buy concerning Harry Potter. A standard is to sell a plastic folder since kids use them for school. I always like the cell phone charms they have.