1961 Segamat, Malaysia
Tan Soot Hua
Born 1941
Segamat in Johor, Malaysia
Interviewed on 1/24/19
By Renee Ong
The first movie I remember watching—it was a long, a really long time ago—was Ben-Hur, the one with Charlton Heston. It was made in 1959, but it only got shown in Malaysia two years later, in 1961. I watched it in June.
I was 20 back then. I went with my cousins! It was a birthday treat for me because my birthday is in June. We took a bus from the house first and then walked to the cinema, Shaw Cinema in Segamat. I think it’s still around, but they made it nice and new now.
There were candy stalls outside the cinema. The swirl candies were really popular; so were the soda drinks, and the peanuts. I don’t remember if I ate anything, but I know they were there.
When we walked in, there were several ushers helping people find their seats. They were pretty nice because it was my first time going to a movie. What was I wearing? It was my birthday, so something nice probably, haha.
We gave them our tickets and they showed us our seats. Of course, there was no free seating, and all the seats were numbered. Isn’t it the same today? At least that’s how they do it here still. I don’t know about America.
Ben-Hur was a good movie. The chariot race was amazing, and the scenes of the Roman Empire were too. I had never seen anything like that before. It was amazing. It was really amazing.
I remember there were visits to the leper colony in the movie, which were also very good and touching. I liked the music soundtrack, all the songs and all that, because it made the movie better.
Anyways, who was who? Hm… I think Charlton Heston was Ben-Hur, and Claude Heater was Jesus of Nazareth. There were other people too, but I can only remember those two for now.
Ben-Hur was obviously the star because that’s the name of the movie. Also, you could tell he was the star because he had a lot of fighting scenes. I also remember watching the screen, watching Jesus save the poor and the lepers, and being really touched.
Ben-Hur was very good! Very good. I don’t remember much, but I do remember that. Have you watched it? No? You should see it too. Maybe I’ll watch it with you.
