Saying goodbye to the Siam Theatre

Bangkokians lost a link to their past with the burning down of the Siam Theatre in the May 19 arson attacks that spread with the military crackdown of the red shirt political protests. As of now the future of the cinema is uncertain, with the owners facing the decision of whether or not to rebuild.

The 800-seat Siam Theatre was one of two remaining first-run single-screen movie houses on the Bangkok cinema scene.  Thankfully its larger, more ornate counterpart in the Apex chain, the 1,000-seat Scala, remains as the crown jewel of Siam Square. And Apex’s three-screen Lido multiplex survived the flames. They continue to show an eclectic blend of current Hollywood hits, independent films and movies from other Asian countries, with the original soundtracks and English and Thai subtitles. 

I’ve appreciated the Apex cinemas since my first visit to Bangkok in 1999. I naturally gravitated to the street-level theaters in Siam Square, just because I could find them without entering any of Bangkok’s labyrinthine, alienating shopping malls. The Siam, with its spacious lobby, dusty curtains and squeaky but still plush seats, became like an old friend. Seeing movies at the Siam, I feel like I’ve experienced them, soaked them up and gotten my money’s worth. After a movie in a mall multiplex, I somehow don’t feel as good about it. And did I mention the price? Still only 100 baht at the Apex cinemas, rather than the 140 or more being charged at the Major Cineplex and SF Cinema chains. (See above gallery.) 

Tracking the decline of the single-screen cinema in Thailand, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project and its blogger The Projectionist documented the Siam when it was still in operation, and dug up some information on its history, noting that it opened on December 15, 1966, showing the Hollywood World War II epic “The Battle of the Bulge” (Thai title: “Rot Thung Prajan Ban”) starring Henry Fonda. “Iron Man 2” was the last movie advertised on the bright orange marquee, now melted by flames.

“As a structure solely intended for the presentation of film, unhindered by other functions, the Siam was conceived with a higher ideal in mind. By the 21st century it had reached legendary status, inspiring awe as much for its sleek, 1960s modern architecture as for the movies it projected across its enormous screen,” The Projectionist wrote recently. “For passengers getting off at the Siam BTS station, the Siam Theatre’s orange-and-white marquee served as a welcoming beacon to the high-fashion commercial district of Siam Square. It was a building always seeming to announce to passersby ‘come and have a look!’”

The Siam Theatre’s innovations included the first escalator in Thailand. Toward the end of its life, the narrow moving staircases were infrequently turned on, but when they were, you were in for a treat, to be transported into a beautiful cinematic world. It was also the first movie house to deploy triple-projection Cinerama.

Another Thailand-based blogger who was a fan of the Siam is Dale Konstanz, who documents colorful Bangkok taxis in his Still Life in Moving Vehicles blog. He has a confession:

“Last year, I was addicted to watching Japanese films and I saw most of them at Siam and Lido. A majority of those movies were super-melodramatic and were intended to tug on the viewer’s heartstrings. I started bringing tissues into the theater with me, and of course, I always told my friends that they were for the popcorn,” Konstanz writes. “One of my favorite, albeit melancholy, Japanese movies that I saw at the Siam was ‘Departures'. Looking back, it seems ironic that I watched so many somber movies in a theater that had a tragic ending itself. I wish I had seen some side-splitting comedies or zany animated films there because so many of my memories related to Siam Theatre are sad, and the fact that it was destroyed in a hateful act makes me even more forlorn. Fortunately, I’ll always remember the exhilarated feeling I got when I walked up to the theater and saw the huge orange marquee on the façade and the big shiny reflective columns on the lower level.”

My last memory of the Siam isn’t so sad: I saw the Hong Kong martial-arts drama “Bodyguards and Assassins”, which mixes thrilling kung-fu kicks with China’s and Hong Kong’s political struggles at the turn of the 20th century. There’s a message in there somewhere for Thailand, but I’d have to watch the movie again to find it. Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing it at the Siam.