Films an Antidote for Homesickness : Chinese a Big Hit at Box Office

Bon Kee Lee loves American movies and would like to watch more of them. But until he can master English, he and his wife drive from Pomona to Alhambra once a week to catch the latest Chinese movie.

James Cheng travels from his home in downtown Los Angeles to a Chinese theater in Monterey Park because he wants his 3-year-old son to get a feel for the Chinese culture.

Huy Hua, a Chinese who was born and raised in Vietnam, goes from her Ontario home to the Chinese theaters several times a year because she enjoys seeing Hong Kong and other places she has never visited.

Leisure Hours

Like hundreds of other Asians, the three like to spend some of their leisure hours at one of three Chinese-language theaters in the San Gabriel Valley. For some, the movies help ease homesickness. For others, especially those who were born or raised in the United States, the films offer glimpses of a land and culture they may have never seen or remember only vaguely.

The three Chinese theaters--the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, the Monterey Theatre in Monterey Park and the Kuo-Hwa Theater in San Gabriel--offer a selection of films in the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects. The films are made in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and Japan.

The movies cover a wide spectrum, from documentaries on mainland China to adult films made in Japan to contemporary comedies from Hong Kong.

Many patrons of the Chinese theaters are recent immigrants who find that almost any movie that shows familiar places and faces helps ease the difficulties of adjusting to a new environment.

“They can come to the theater and feel like they’re home,” said David Ting, part owner of the Garfield. “I guess we provide mental nutrition, to a certain extent, until they are totally adjusted,” he said.

‘Like the Sceneries’

“I like the sceneries in the Chinese movies because I’ve never seen them before,” said the 44-year-old Cheng, who was born in Shantung province in China and moved to Taiwan at an early age.

Cheng, a legal assistant who lives in Chinatown, takes his family to the Monterey Theatre about twice a month to enjoy Mandarin films from China. Cheng said he enjoys Chinese movies more than American films because he is not familiar enough with American culture to fully understand them.

“If you did not grow up in the United States and are not familiar with American life, it’s harder to follow the plot of the American movies,” Cheng said. The Garfield Theatre’s Ting compared the situation to that of Americans watching British movies and not always catching the humor.

Another group that frequents the Chinese-language theaters is parents who want their children to be exposed to traditional Chinese values. Among recent offerings was an action film titled “The Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple,” which stressed that the ancient art of kung fu should be used only for peaceful purposes.

For the young adult crowd, there have been contemporary love stories and comedies that often mirror the cultural dichotomy they have experienced in their own lives. One Hong Kong comedy, “Friendly Ghost,” somersaults between the old and the new, between East and West.

Domineering Role

The young office workers whose lives are portrayed whiz around cosmopolitan Hong Kong in imported cars. But the leading male character gloats in his traditional, domineering role, ordering his wife to put more sugar in his coffee and demanding that she remain faithful while he plays the field.

Other movies, purposely filled with anachronisms, also reflect the eclectic background of both the movie makers and their audience. In “Drunken Tai-Chi,” a kung fu comedy made in Hong Kong and set in ancient China, a puppeteer who had to come up with a new show for a customer ended up break dancing in a kung fu outfit.

All the films have English subtitles. The movies also have Chinese subtitles to accommodate the linguistic diversity of the Chinese moviegoers. Even though the spoken forms of the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects are as different from each other as English is from Spanish, the two Chinese dialects share a common written form.

Because more than half of the San Gabriel Valley’s Chinese residents speak Mandarin, theater owners sometimes offer Cantonese films dubbed in Mandarin.

All three theaters offer double features. The main attraction is sandwiched between two showings of a second film. For $4 a person, customers can sit through as many showings as they like and come and go as often as they want.

Chinese language theaters are not new to the Southland.

Chinatown Has 3

Chinatown has three, the oldest of which has been around for more than 20 years, said Mabel Luan, manager of the Pagoda Cinema in Chinatown.

“In the old days, Chinese immigrants were not made to feel at home outside the confines of Chinatown,” the Garfield’s Ting said. Chinese theaters were one of the few places immigrants could go for entertainment back then, he said. Chinese theaters were slower to come to the San Gabriel Valley. The first was the Monterey, which opened in November, 1979. The two others opened shortly after that.

The three San Gabriel Valley theaters are large, old movie houses that were abandoned as theater operations moved to shopping centers and multi-screen facilities.

“Had the Chinese not leased or bought the old theaters, it’s uncertain that the theaters would still be there today,” said James Edwards III, president of Edwards Theatres.

Operators of the Chinese theaters have made some changes to accommodate their predominantly Chinese clientele. Although original signs such as the one for the Century Theatre in San Gabriel remain, there are additional signs in Chinese characters.

Inside, the snack booths are stocked with both American and Chinese treats. At the Garfield, for example, customers can choose between orange whip from the counter or soya bean drinks and chrysanthemum tea from a vending machine in the lobby. Neatly stacked next to the Junior Mints and M&Ms; are bags of shrimp chips, preserved plums and spicy beef jerky. All three theaters also sell popcorn.

“American popcorn doesn’t sell well, but we do offer it, because it’s (an American) tradition,” said Ting’s wife, Yuk.

Not Trouble Free

The transition to Chinese-language films has not been trouble-free. Both the Garfield and Kuo-Hwa theaters were targets of vandalism when they first opened.

“During our first year, every Friday, for 12 weeks, someone would break the glass doors,” said Susie Wong, manager of the Kuo-Hwa Theatre.

“People called in saying that they had been to the theater for 30 years and they just didn’t like the idea (of our being there),” Ting said.

Chinese hoodlums also caused trouble in the beginning.

“We had problems with Chinese gangs that operated out of Chinatown,” said Juliana Tu, an assistant to the owner of the Monterey Theatre.

But those problems have pretty much disappeared, and the three theaters now average 100 to 200 customers each on week nights, the managers said. The Garfield, with a seating capacity of 1,100, sometimes sells out on weekends.

Each of the theaters appeals to a different type of audience. The Garfield mainly offers first-run comedies and action movies from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Its programming is predominantly family oriented, with a smattering of R-rated films.

The Monterey Theatre mainly offers movies produced in mainland China.

“Eighty-five percent of the movies shown here are made in mainland China,” said Luan, who, in addition to her duties at the Pagoda Cinema in Chinatown represents the Monterey Theatre.

‘Political Reasons’

The Garfield Theatre does not show pictures produced in mainland China “because of political reasons,” Ting said. “We have very big involvement in the business in Taiwan,” he explained.

Most of the movies shown at the Kuo-Hwa Theatre are Japanese adult films with names such as “Women” and “Expensive Taste,” and they attract both Chinese and non-Chinese patrons. “In a sense, everybody has carved out his own market,” Ting said.

The three theaters also appeal to different age groups. For example, while the average age of customers at the Garfield, which shows many action films, is 15 to 35, the Monterey attracts an older crowd.

“Most of our customers are older immigrants,” said the Monterey’s Luan. “We get very few teen-agers.”

“The children are fluent in English, but their Chinese level may not be good enough, so they don’t understand the movies,” Luan said. “They don’t come unless the parents bring them.”

For example, Cheng says his more Americanized teen-age children refuse to watch any Chinese movies. And, pointing to his 3-year-old son who was running around the lobby, he said, “When he grows up, he won’t watch Chinese movies either.”

The Chinese theaters have not been successful in attracting large numbers of non-Asian moviegoers, either. Only one of the three theaters has advertised in English-language newspapers, and that ad failed to draw increased numbers of non-Asian customers.

“Of course we want their business,” said Luan of the Monterey Theatre. “We have not advertised in Western papers because we thought perhaps there would be no interest.”

But Luan said the Monterey is considering efforts to court non-Chinese customers.

“A movie called ‘The Secret of Tibet’ has been running in our San Francisco theater for five weeks,” Luan said. “We called to find out why it’s doing so well, and found out that the majority of customers are Caucasians.

“So now we are planning to bring it back and show it for a second time,” she said. “This time we plan to advertise in the English-language newspapers.”