Life and Leisure

Mountain cinema screens one film 18,000 times

By Lian Mo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-16 11:07

In the 1980s when there were stand-alone cinemas, many had names such as Roxy, Odean or Ritz. But not a small cinema at Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi province, eastern China.

Since the 1980s, the 360-seat cinema has been named Romance on Lushan Mountain Cinema and has screen only one film: the film that has given it its name.

So far, it has screened Romance on Lushan Mountain more than 18,000 times to an estimated 170,000 people.

Cinema manager Qian Yisu said that in 2002, the cinema was placed on the world map when it set a Guinness world record for showing one film for the longest continuous time.

The cinema started life as a Christian union church in 1897, built by a British missionary. In 1960, the local government transformed it into a cinema called East Valley. A couple of years after Romance on Lushan Mountain came out and the cinema had been showing the film non-stop, it changed its name to Romance on Lushan Mountain Cinema.

The cinema, which shows the film twice every evening all year round, has used 17 prints and has changed its projectors, too. And the price for admission has gone up from 0.12 yuan to 30 yuan ($4.4) now.

But staff changes have been few. Yang Lin and Wu Hui were both projectionists and fell in love in the projection room. They married more than 20 years ago and are still working in the cinema.

A retired projectionist, Wang Limin, said her husband, who does not know English at all, can speak the few English lines in the film very well because he would often come to the cinema to take her home.

Qian said many family members staff can virtually recite every line of the film.

Luo Fengyun, a medical science professor in his 40s, has been visiting Lushan Mountain every year since his college days, and keeps seeing the film. "He is just one of our old but regular customers," Qian said.

"Some even reserve tickets for a special day or send the tickets as gifts to their loved ones.

"It is a good film and sometimes I still sat on the back row and watch it for a while, even though I know its every detail."