1955 Taipei, Taiwan

Chu-Chih Lin Chiang
DATE OF BIRTH: April 10th, 1940
CITY: Taipei
INTERVIEW DATE: 9/15/19
INTERVIEWER: Richard Hwang

I don’t really remember much about when I started watching movies, but the one I can remember the most was when I was either fifteen or sixteen.  It was one of those Laurel and Hardy movies. I’m not quite sure what it was called, but it was probably one of the earlier ones? The thing about movies in Taipei is that sometimes, it would take a few extra years after the film was first released to show up in Taiwan.

I would go to the movies usually with my classmates from school.  Walking was probably the fastest way for us to get there. Since Taipei is a city, it definitely made more sense than any other way of traveling.  There weren’t that many cars back then, and buses didn’t come by that often. If the theater was a bit further away, we’d take one of those cycle rickshaws, but usually I’d just walk.

I can’t recall the name of the theater, but it was really big.  The theater was always super-crowded. I mean, it was full every time I went.  Once the movie started, no one would ever leave their seats to go to the bathroom or buy snacks.  My friends would get snacks every time, but I never did. I just never really liked the snacks they sold at the theater.  I might have gotten a popcorn once in a while? For the most part, I just wanted to concentrate on watching the film.

The thing about Laurel and Hardy is that I love comedy movies. While much of this one is escaping me right now, the characters always stuck with me.  There was the fatty and the skinny one and they were just both very cute. I always had a lot of fun seeing what they were getting up to. It was a comedy, so it made me laugh.  It was black and white because there wasn’t any color at the time. I don’t know, I think it was the fact that they were both kind of dumb and clumsy that made me like them so much. 

The dialogue from the film was very simple, but I always had a good time seeing them.  The thing about Taiwanese movie theaters is that they used the English audio, but they would put both Chinese and English subtitles on the bottom.  I don’t know why, but the subtitles would always come in pairs. Sometimes people who would come to these films didn’t know how to read at all, so whenever the theater was showing some English-language film, they wouldn’t completely understand what was going on because they didn’t know how to read the Chinese subtitles either.  At the side of the theater, near the projection booth, there would be someone explaining what was happening while the movie was going for people who weren’t as educated.

Other than the audio commentary thing they would do on the side, the movie theater I went to would give each of us a běnshì (本事) whenever we bought a ticket.  They weren’t really programs or pamphlets, but they were kind of summaries of what we were getting ourselves into when we bought a ticket.  These little cards would tell us what the film was about, the actors who were in it, and the year the movie came out. I think the Laurel and Hardy I watched had come out at least five years prior.

Actually, now that I think about it, the film stopped the time I went to see Laurel and Hardy.  I think it was because the film strip snapped or something because the image on the screen just kinda split and became a white light.  People whistled and grumbled because they were mad that the film had gotten interrupted. They fixed it in the end, though, and everyone clapped once the movie started up again.

Honestly, I can’t tell you much about the movie I saw that time other than the fact that it was Laurel and Hardy and that I know it was funny because it was Laurel and Hardy.  However, I can tell you that I had a good time that night. That much I can tell you.