(Leica D-Lux 5, Film Grain mode)
If you are a cinephile, being new in town or travelling to Hong Kong or surprisingly having been here for a while but not heard about it, the best cinema experience is only to be found in the Broadway Cinematheque tucked among the back lanes but close enough to be accessible from the Yaumatei MTR station.
The Cinematheque does screen popular movies. But for roughly half of the screening slots, it shifts away from the lousy Hollywood stuff in favour of the classy productions of note from all over the world. It also puts up special regular movie festivals. Such a taste is shared by the Cine-Art House, a cinema of the UA line, located in a busy shopping mall at Kowloon Bay which is exactly why the Cinematheque is much preferred by cinephiles.
The place has just undergone a 6-month long renovation, bringing the building a spick-and-span whitewashed facade with random voids outlined by wooden-frame-like fittings. Hanging on the facade are two huge canvases for movie ads which will immediately bring up one's memories of those oversized hand-painted ads of yesteryear's. The bookstore-cum-eatery next to it has also been given a facelift, which looks more orderly in the book area and interestingly neighbourhood-like in the eating area. The Cinemetheque member's club now operates in the lobby of the cinema. The membership entitles members privileges including watching premier screenings for free.
In case waiting for formalism to unfold in popular movies and going through a noisy place to the movies don't exactly work around your way, try the Cinemetheque. And there is an added bonus coz the Temple Street night market is just a few minutes' walk away.
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