Farewell Yangtze Cinema 长江戏院落幕

Today, it's curtains for the legendary Yangtze Cinema (长江戏院) which screened R(21) movies. The owner Mr Mono Chong is a friend. I turned up with my husband to bide farewell to Singapore's last standing old cinema with a colourful piece of history.

The two storey Yangtze Cinema opened on 27 January 1977. It showed mainly Chinese movies during its early days and had its golden era. Tickets cost S$1, S$2 and S$3 (upper level) then.

Equipped with digital cinema projection, it started to screen erotic films from Hong Kong, Japan and Korea in 1995 when multiplexes become the norm. The cinema's clientèle were mainly elderly men and they paid S$10 for a ticket.

We were given a tour of the projection room where vintage equipment like the 35mm movie platter projectors and 35mm film projectors were still kept. I would have loved to take one 35mm film reel but it being an erotic film, I was dissuaded from accepting.

Several reporters had turned up in the morning to interview the owner who kindly obliged. I sat in and had a better understanding of the history of Yangtze Cinema.

My husband and I stayed to have a feel of watching a racy flick but it turned out to be a boring and silly movie, so we walked out after 20 minutes. When a friend got wind that we were watching a movie at Yangtze Cinema, he texted "check the seat for sticky stuff before you sit". -_-'"

The cinema's oldest employee, 82-year-old Mr Tan couldn't contain his sadness on the closing of Yangtze Cinema.


以播放限制级电影而知名的老戏院 - 长江戏院 - 今天结束营业。我和先生见证它走入历史前的这一天。