Hi, I’m The Arty Dans from Asian Film Fans and welcome to this video.
One of things I love to do when I go back to China and Hong Kong
is to go to the ciname and watch a movie.
Not only are the prices cheaper, but also the selection of movies is far more varied.
Here’s a list comparing movie prices from my home city of Melbourne in Australia,
to what I paid for a ticket to watch Ip Man 4 in the cinema
I am taking you on a tour of in this video.
Before we take the tour, I just want to give you a brief rundown on AsianFilmFans.
Our website is set to launch in mid-2020,
but you can go there now and check out whats to come.
It's an Asian film database site that allows you to find all the information about your
favourite Asian movies,
create a movie diary and wishlists,
watch our translated trailers and more.
More features will be added to the site as it matures,
but check it out today, sign up and join our community on reddit as well.
The cinema we are taking a tour of in this video is the independent YES Cinema,
situated in the Dynamic Xiguan Entertainment district of Liwan, Guangzhou China.
The site of Liwan was chosen as it was the heart of an old district in Guangzhou
that didn't currently have a cinema
all that changed with the construction of the entertainment district where alongside
the cinema there were other choices such as bars, clubs and a selection of restaurants.
This is Mr Ruan, the day manager (and business partner) for Yes.
I sat down for a chat with him and asked a few questions.
First up, when did the cinema open?
and what was the first movie ever shown?
Operation Red Sea is a 2018 action thriller about a hostage rescue mission conducted
by the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy division,
and how they encounter resistance from rebels and terrorists.
This movie was the highest grossing film in China in 2018,
and it’s not hard to see why.
(movie audio)
However, I also wanted to know one more thing:
What is the most popular movie you have ever shown here, and why?
For those who don’t know, Wolf Warrior 2, starring Wu Jing,
is another very popular action blockbuster series.
Part 2 sees our hero Feng taking on a gang of sadistic mercenaries
that are hunting for a doctor who's come up with a cure for a disease
ravaging the villages of Africa, where Feng has settled down.
Wolf Warrior 2 is an exciting, if over the top, action movie
very reminiscent of the Rambo series.
Check out a review I’ve previous done on Wolf Warrior 2 by clicking on the card above.
Regarding audience taste – well that’s easy!
The audience definitely prefers the local Chinese movies over the international releases.
Any why not, when you consider some of the Chinese movies released during
2018-2019 including not only the action blockbusters
Operation Red Sea and The Wandering Earth,
but also China’s highest grossing film of 2019 – Ne Zha.
What makes YES Cinema unique compared to its competition is the
CGS hall, the China Giant Screen,
a massive 30 metre, 380 seat hall that’s used for the latest blockbuster movies.
This one also has a special seating arrangement,
and if we go down and have a look,
you'll see that these red seats spell out the letter 'S'.
The CGS technology is direct competitor of the Canadian IMAX tech,
and is slowly increasing its presence in cinemas worldwide.
At the time of my visit, it was showing Ip Man 4 The Finale.
With 380 seats here, where should I sit?
Maybe right at the front!
There are 9 other halls for a total of 10 (NOTE There are actually 11 total halls)
ranging in size, but each having a slightly unique layout with the seating colours.
So lets take a look around YES Cinema
When walking into the foyer, you are greeted with a large open gathering space.
To the left are a few places to eat and some movie advertising.
To the right of the entrance are a massive bank of capsule machines,
where you can win a random selection of figures from different toys series.
As it was Christmas during our visit,
there were also a few decorated Christmas trees on display.
Note the lack of theft or damage!
In the middle are these karaoke machines
which are very popular in China right now,
claw prize winning machines with a great selection of soft toys
and the popular massage chairs
modelled here by our camerawoman.
Here is where you can charge your mobile phone
and behind it is the touch screen ticket purchase and collection machines.
We bought our tickets using WeChat pay,
and used a simple QR code to pick them up.
Here is our camerawoman modelling our tickets to Ip Man 4.
To the right of the foyer, there is another hidden restaurant,
a few Pandora Box arcade machines with a massive selection of emulated
Neo Geo, Capcom and other arcade games
and more movie advertising.
In front of the candy bar/ticket box is the centerpiece
the large red Y E S characters that double up as resting seats for
people waiting for their session to start.
The candy bar sells the usual variety of snacks you would expect in the cinema
That looks like popcorn to me
this big selection of ice cream and soft drinks.
As well as a few uniquely Chinese things,
in this case the soy snacks and a few Chinese only chip flavours
like cucumber
but that’s not the strangest, not only is there Seaweed, but there's also
Chicken Massaman flavoured snacks!
But Arty Dans, you ask, what about the Candy Bar Prices?
Well check this panning shot of the prices board and our
approximate currency conversion of the prices
If you’re watching this from Australia you’ll notice the prices are a heck of a lot cheaper
Before passing through the usher, there is a large screen on the right
that cycles through the latest trailers.
Apparently they use this also for marriage proposals
Inside the ticketed area are the movie halls.
Downstairs there are three (4) including the CGS hall and a set of toilets.
Upstairs are the remaining 7 halls and another set of toilets.
This smaller cinema has red seats that display the letter Y. Nice.
Getting technical – the projection room features of combination
of some of the latest in digital cinema projection.
The state of the art CGS hall is powered by 2 Barco DP4K-32B projectors,
running alternative line pictures calibrated and synchronized to display a large,
crisp and bright image at up 30 meters (height).
This is supplimented by a Dolby Atmos 9.2 configuration
powered by a large bank of Crown CNi2000 amplifiers
manufactured by Harman, a company belonging to Samsung.
When a 3D movie is set to play,
a plate is placed over the projection glass to enable the 3D effect.
Other projectors in the booth include the BARCO 20C and BARCO10SL,
depending on the size of the screen in a particular hall.
On average, Yes can expect a bulb on one of these projectors to last
at least 1000 viewing hours until a shift in picture quality is noticeable.
For more information on BARCO and their line of projectors, check out this site:
Now for some more interesting information
how are the movies delivered to the cinema?
All movies are stored on the projector’s built in hard drive,
loaded up via a hard drive supplied by the film distributor.
Yes cinema then downloads a key file from a specified location to activate the movie
If they want to show the movie in a few different halls,
they’ll need to arrange the download of multiple key files.
For obvious reasons, Yes didn't advise me where they download the file from
or the exact process around obtaining additional files.
Interestingly the key file has a kill date,
which then renders the film file on the harddrive useless and unplayable.
The average kill date for most movies is 4 weeks.
On average each movie takes up approximately 50-100Gb of hard-drive space
this includes both the video and audio.
The good thing about these projectors is they are able to have multiple movies
stored on their hard drives,
and programmed to show different movies at different times of the day,
providing the right key is inserted.
Trailers and other advertising is fed to the projector using a network server
just to the side of the projector.
And there Is our tour of the Yes Cinema complex in Guangzhou China,
hopefully it reminds you of your local cinema chain.
If you’re ever in the area, pop in and watch a movie.
They've got a great selection of both English-speaking,
and English-subtitled movies on offer.
Thank you for watching this video.