Going to the movies for the first time

To celebrate our wedding anniversary last month, we decided to bring Dominic and Pia to the movies (Samuel also came along as well but didn't see much since he was still inside his Mommy's tummy).

It was their first time to go to the movies. Choices were limited as the family-oriented shows running at the time were only Superman Returns, and Cars. I decided that Cars might be the better choice, although we were worried that at 128 minutes, it's a bit too long. We didn't know how they would take to sitting in the dark for so long.

Dominic and Pia have just been introduced to Superman via old Superman videos available at archive.org and, very recently, the original Superman I movie, starring Cristopher Reeves, which was shown on Sunday TV movies.

We went to UA Cinema at Windsor House in Causeway Bay. Being cheapskates, we went for the 10:20am showing. It costs only $30 at that time. All other shows for the day was at $45.

The ticketing lady looked at Pia and sized her up as less than 1 meter tall, thus she gets to go in for free. That was a pleasant surprise. We picked the seats we wanted and then proceeded to go inside.

But when we were about to enter the section where the theaters were, the young teenager who collects tickets stopped us and said she thought Pia should have a ticket. When we tried to explain in English, she backed off, probably it wasn't worth the trouble of talking in English, and just let us pass.

It was the children's first time in any theatre, but it was the first time for the adults to this particular theatre. Compared to what I recall of theatres in Manila, this cinema was about half the size, perhaps even only a third.

The theatre had two columns of seats, divided by only one aisle . Each column had only 6 seats, I think, so the theatre was only about 12 seats wide, plus the aisle. This was only 1 of two theatres showing Cars in its original English. The rest were showing the Cantonese dubbed version.

Domu enjoyed the show and was able to follow some of the story, laughing at the appropriate places. I tried to explain the important points. Pia looked bored and just concentrated on eating the snacks we brought in.

At just the worst possible moment, Pia declared it was time for her to visit the toilet. My wife missed the climax of the show (the final moments of the final race) because she had to bring Pia (I had brought Domu a little earlier -- I can't recall at which point so I wonder how much I missed).

All in all, it was an ok movie. Perhaps a little too long. A few scenes had me bursting out loud: the punks playing mellow music while Mack was trying to stay awake come to mind. The cow tractors were enjoyable.

After the show, they were pretty happy at the experience.