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Today I went to see a movie. First, I had dinner in the Suria
KLCC food court, which amounted to about the worst dining experience
I've had in KL so far. Then it was time for a Malaysian movie
experience.
Unfortunately, all the Malaysian movies (there is a thriving
local film industry) were in Malay, so I had to resort to buying
a ticket for Spiderman, which was in English. In case you don't
know the Spiderman story: Loser boy gets bitten by a genetically
engineered super-spider which turns him into a superhero so that
he would almost get the girl of his dreams if his superhero status
would not require that he has no sex and no life. Well, regarding
sex he wouldn't have had any life in any case, at least not on
a Malaysian screen: Movies are heavily cut with respect to love
scenes and intimate physical contact. To the point of getting
annoying, any attempt of the girl to kiss the boy ended in a movie
interruptus before you could see anything.
The audience behaved pretty much like a (white) Western audience,
and unlike the Black American audiences I've had the occassional
pleasure to experience in the U.S. Which is to say that the audience
was disciplined and fairly quiet. The only thing different from
a Western audience was the large number of small children in the
theater. I'm not sure whether this indicates the parents' desire
to turn their offspring into a superhero as early as possible.
It is probably more that babysitters cost too much and everyone
is used to little kids crawling all over the place.
After the movie, at around midnight, I walked home through
KL. Only on Jalan Sultan Ismail, a few cafes were still open.
It was all very quiet and did not feel dangerous at all. The only
worrying experience were two stray dogs--worrying because Rabies
is wide-spread in Malaysia according to my U.S. doctor, and it
is still a deadly disease.
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