The Decline of Thailand's Stand-alone Movie Theaters

The motion picture made its Siamese debut on June 10th, 1897, approximately two years aft er the medium made its first ever appearance – in the basement of a Parisian café. Film was an instant success with Siamese audiences, a notion which was not lost on the enterprising eyes of the day’s entrepreneurs. In its inception, the medium grew in popularity first among Siamese aristocracy. Th e first motion picture camera to enter the country was purchased by Prince Thongtham

Thavalyavong , a brother of King Rama V , which he used to produce films of his own. Th e first permanent motion picture Theater, however, was established not by a citizen of Siam, but by a Japanese immigrant who, judging from the success of motion pictures in his native Japan, wisely predicted the popularity that the medium would receive in the Southeast Asian kingdom. In 1905 Watanabe Tomoyori opened the country’s first ever movie theater, “Th e Japanese Cinema ,” in Bangkok (Sukwong, 2001: 2). Th e moniker that came to embody the fi lm medium in Siam during its first few years in the country incorporated Watanabe’s national origin – “Nang Yipun,” or “Japanese Film” and it flourished.