Ridiculous People. Ridiculous Rulings.

Why stop at couple seats? Why not completely stop screening movies that promote social ills?

COMMENT

I went to GSC Gurney Plaza in Penang yesterday to watch the Ant-Man. I bought the Premier Class ticket which offers rows of double couple seats which are pretty comfortable.

As usual, the movie didn’t begin at the stated time. Instead, like in most Malaysian cinemas, I was forced to watch commercials and trailers for a good twenty minutes to half an hour prior to the movie.

Bored with the locally made uncreative-stupid-commercials playing on the big screen, I decided to check out the other patrons. From where I was sitting, I had a clear view of the patrons.

Most were couples – some young, some old. Some were holding hands. Some had their heads on their partner’s shoulder. Others shared blankets. Still others were snuggling comfortably in their couple seats.

As the movie started, I was swept away by the opening scene and soon found myself deeply drawn into the story, which was amazingly crafted and hilariously written. Soon I was so into the movie that I was no longer bothered with the snuggling couples.

That was when I heard a commentary coming from behind my seat.

I turned my head 180 degrees to find a woman talking to a young boy seated on her lap.

“What is he doing?” asked the boy.

“He is jumping over the wall to get to the other side,” the woman’s voice was very clear.

“What is he doing now?”

“He is trying to break into the house.”

“Why?”

“Because he is a burglar. That’s what they do.”

This went on and on until the movie ended.

Normally, I would have given the woman a piece of my mind or at least ‘Shhhhh-ed’ until my eyes bulged. But since I was in a pretty good mood yesterday, I decided to keep my cool. Lucky for her.

Anyway, this morning I almost died laughing when I read about what a local theatre company was up to. It appears that Lotus Five Star Cinema (LFS) was prohibiting unmarried Muslim couples who are not blood relatives from occupying couple seats. According to the news, the ruling was to curb immoral acts among young adults.

Seriously? First, 24-hours mamak restaurants were blamed for immoral acts among youth and now couple seats in cinemas? I wonder who is coming up with these incredulous hypotheses?

The last time I checked, theatres are profit-oriented business entities. So why are these ‘mata duitan’ companies who generally disregard service quality, all of a sudden so interested in doing their bit to curb social ills in our society?

Come on lah, if indeed theatre companies are feeling the urge to play a positive role, why not begin by taking care of your customers? Why not stop idiotic parents/guardians from bringing toddlers and the little ones into cinema halls and ruining the movie for everyone else? Why not stop overcharging patrons at your food kiosk? Why not improve the quality of your visuals, audio and the overall quality of the movie experience? Why not provide training to your staff so they know what to do ─ smile ─ and what not to do ─ open doors during a screening?

Clearly, there are so many more worthwhile matters the LFS should be paying attention to instead of introducing ridiculous rules. If LFS ─ one of the more successful cinema chains in the country ─ is sincere in its intent to play an active role in curbing social ills in the nation, why not STOP showing movies which could trigger it in the first place?

To this end, I suggest that LFS stop showing Tamil and Bollywood movies where the heroines flaunt their bosoms, shake their ‘aerobacks’ and flash their thighs as they dance their way around coconut trees. While at it, they should also stop showing action packed movies where the heroes are engaged in violence and acts of gangsterism. And don’t forget movies which promote undesirable behaviour such as underage romance, forbidden love affairs, disobedience towards parents, consumption of alcohol, drug abuse, out of wedlock pregnancies and bad language.

In fact, if we start filtering out movies that promote social ills in one way or another, that would effectively rule out almost 80% of all movies shown at LFS! Would LFS be willing to stop screening all those movies in order to curb social ills?

Come on lah, let us stop being ridiculous, can or not?

With all due respect, I think it is time LFS reconsiders their ridiculous ruling because it makes them look really really stupid!