First Public 3D Movie to be Shown in Hakha

23 October 2012: A Chin owner of the Everest Video Production (EVP) is to show a 3D movie to the local public for the first time in Hakha, Chin State on 27 October 2012.

Pu Lai Peng said the Saturday shows will feature two films at 12:30pm and 7pm, and only 20 3D glasses are available for each session, according to the HYO (Hakha Youth Organization) newsletter.

A single ticket, which can also be booked in advance at the EVP shop, costs 1,000 kyats and the whole set of facilities including the movie theatre and a range of films to choose is available for hire with the price of 20,000 kyats per session.

“We are excited about this 3D movie. Many people cannot still afford to own TV at home and going out to see a movie shown on a TV screen is still something we normally do. The new facility with glasses makes it even more exciting,” expressed a Chin local from Hakha.

Last Sunday, an epic science fiction film by James Cameron Avatar was shown at the end of an opening prayer service of the new three-dimensional movie facility in Chin State’s capital.

“Speaking of movies, the movie theatres in Chin State are not like those in Rangoon. They are just a bigger room or house rented with no soundproofing walls or other equipment. Most of the movies are shown on TV screens,” said a Chin university student in Rangoon.

The movie theatres across Burma’s poorest Chin State are merely house-based with films shown mostly at night on small-or-medium-sized TV screens.

Until today, no major Burmese movie firms such as Mingalar Ltd. have extended their presence in Chin State, largely influenced by Indian films during the 1980s and 1990s.

Before the 8888 nationwide uprising and the film industry in Burma was privatized by the then military regime in 1989, Chin State also had at least one cinema theatre in Hakha shown once or twice a week.

With an increase in the number of families having TVs at home through the help of family members working abroad, Chin State has seen a decline of movie theatres in towns in recent years.

In August this year, Burma’s largest film exhibitor, Mingalar Company, in partnership with 20th Century Fox released the first 3D film on Titanic in the country.

Reporting by Thawng Zel Thang
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