First Cinema Trip in China

Some of my students invited us to go to the cinema with them to see a film, they wanted to see the Avengers, and wanted to invite Chris and I to go with them. We had not been to the cinema yet so we of course accepted, and they met us last Saturday night and took us into town, 4 students and us two, first we went for hot pot for dinner but the meal ran on a little long and by the time we had finished eating we were a little late. Three of the students and Chris grabbed the first taxi and the final student and I waited for a second. When we got into the new taxi I asked the price and as soon as he said £1.50 and not £1 I started arguing in Chinese with him until he gave us the proper price, much to my students surprise! In front of them I generally avoid speaking any Chinese, leaving it up to them to speak English, as best they can! 

We arrived at the cinema a bit early and the students went off to confirm the language of the film, they said if enough people requested it then they would consider showing it in English! As we had predicted of course only one person requested it and so the cinema decided to play it in Chinese, the students were very embarrassed but we weren't worried, we picked up our 3D glasses and took our seats!

As we waited for the movie to start at 7.20 we watched more and more of both mine and Chris's students walk in! all very surprised to see us! We got some snacks and a drink and chatted, and took some silly pictures, waiting for the movie to start.

At exactly 7.20 the movie began, no adverts, no trailers, just bam, projector on, movie starts. It was very strange disorientating, especially considering I was used to a good half an hour of random adverts before any real movie. At first I thought that this was just a trailer and it couldn't possibly be the actual movie! 

As the movie started we realised it was completely in Chinese, with some useful Chinese subtitles, and it was great practise, and it being an action movie you can get the plot of, man in black is bad, man in white is good, bad man has box, good man wants box, and any Chinese you understand is a bonus. I was happy to find out I could understand a surprising amount, not enough to understand every nuance, but enough!

The students were really happy to take their only time of for the week and spend it with us, and they were really into it, we even found that our students had brought a small leaflet they had made, explaining each characters back story!

The style of movie watching in China is very different, all Chinese people are willing to chat, laugh, cry, explain plot developments at length at the top of their voice to someone 5 seats away, answer their phones and chat away and many other things. The amazing thing is that nobody else in cinema seemed to care! I guess if everyone does it....

Watching a film in China was just like watching it with friends and their house really, its kind of on, sort of in the background, and chatting and calls etc are all pretty much accepted, a bit surreal, but fun, and worth it just to avoid the damn adverts!

When the film finished every Chinese person except our group was up and out the door before the credits had even started! let alone finished! as soon as the main plot was over they were out of there, no heart warming roundup. We waited with our students for the 'bonus end feature' but we were alone in the whole cinema, amazing. 

After the film we jumped into a taxi and escorted them back to school, unfortunately they live in the school and their curfew was 10pm, and the film didn't end until nearly 10, luckily we came back with them and escorted them past the gate guard, making their excuses for them, although one student took advantage of our offer and took Chris for a burger before bed! When we arrived back at the boys dorm the door was already locked, and the windows are all barred, and so we thought he might have to stay at ours, but luckily the guard came and opened it one last time to let him in!