In July 2004, House RCA opened its doors as Bangkok's alternative cinema. Twelve years on, to the surprise of many including the owners, it's still standing as a home for small movies, indie darlings, overlooked hits and second-run titles, an anomaly in the near-monopoly market of theatre chains that dictate public taste with big movies.
"You want an honest answer? No, I never thought we would last this long," said Chomsajee Techarattanaprasert, one of the founders.
"After a year, I realised it wasn't a good business idea. Then every year onwards, people kept asking me when we would close shop because they could see we weren't doing that great. But we kept doing it because we wanted to."
Celebrating its 12th anniversary with a splendid renovation, House RCA is a cultural as well as a business case study: Can Bangkok sustain a stand-alone cinema that focuses on small movies, a haven of films that function as an antidote to loud blockbusters and neon-splashed multiplexes? Before House, the city wasn't totally devoid of arthouse (or alternative) venues, and cinephiles weren't starving to death -- there were weekly screenings at cultural institutions such as Alliance Francaise and the Japan Foundation, while regular cinemas like Lido sometimes catered to indie titles.
But House, starting off with 35mm projection and now in digital, presented the first permanent movie house with a clear mission to promote small titles, Thai and international alike.
Enthusiasm ran high among film buffs. Over the years, the two-screen House boasted gems such as the director's cut of the hit Thai film Rak Haeng Siam (Love Of Siam); the Chinese erotic thriller Se, jie (Lust, Caution) (the uncut version); the French lesbian drama La vie d'Adèle (Blue Is The Warmest Colour); the Iranian drama Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation); and the phenomenon of the Thai independent hits 36 and Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy, which packed the screening room and drew thousands of young viewers to the venue for over a month.
But those are bursts of glory. Chomsajee -- who's better known as an executive of Sahamongkol Film, one of Thailand's biggest movie studios and distributors -- admits that times have been tough. Each month, the attendance number is a few thousand at best, and far fewer on average. House's location in the RCA strip, near Soi Soonvijai on Phetchaburi Road, has always been a shortcoming. Today, the cinema is a fashionable space next to an abandoned bowling parlour, while downstairs, apart from Tops supermarket, the atmosphere can feel glum.
Chomsajee admits that on a balance sheet, House can still stand, though barely, because of its affiliation with the richer Sahamongkol Film.
House RCA has been renovated for its 12th anniversary. Photos: Chanat Katanyu
"But House is not Sahamongkol Film, and our programming is independent," says Chomsajee. "We screen films from every studio, Thai and international. We accept second-run titles [to prolong the life of a film after a week or two at multiplexes]. We show small Thai independent films that we know would hardly attract viewers.
"As a business, it's not always a good idea. But when we started out, we knew we wanted to make this an alternative space, and when it got tough, we kept going because we believed it would create diversity in the moviegoing scene."
The founders besides Chomsajee are Pongnarin U-lit and Pornchai Wiriyaprapanon, as well as Yuthana Boon-orm and Arunee Srisuk (though the latter two are no longer involved).
The lesson, Chomsajee says, is that running a stand-alone cinema with alternative programming requires lots of patience, physically and financially. And she says this despite the fact that she has had support from a bigger firm.
Another lesson is that the growth of the cinema business only means the expansion of big-scale multiplexes housed in shopping malls that show the same medium to big Hollywood titles -- it doesn't accompany the growth in diversity of taste and audience perception. Major Cineplex now has 600-plus screens and plans to open 60 more this year. SF Cinema, the other key player, has around 320 screens and plans to open a dozen more this year. This weekend, both chains expect to do brisk business from just one movie, the superhero flick Suicide Squad.
House, meanwhile, will screen Woody Allen's Café Society, which has already had its run at multiplexes, and the French drama Un + Une.
Chomsajee says that she expected the segment of audience interested in so-called alternative movies would grow when she opened House. But over the past 12 years, that growth is not as substantial as she had imagined.
With the swanky renovation and a pained decision to up the ticket price to 140 baht after holding the 100-baht mark for several years, House seems committed to play its role, however small. "We started out because it's our passion," says Chomsajee. "Now we hope we can keep on doing this."
House RCA will organise the 12th-anniversary special programme with 12 films that were big hits at the cinema in the past 12 years. Beginning Aug 19, the programme includes The Lobster, Amour, Her, Drive, Tokyo Sonata, Jodaeiye Nader az Simin and many more. Visit www.facebook.com/houseRCA.
Bangkok Screening Room. Photo courtesy of Bangkok Screening Room
The new kids on the block
Stand-alone cinemas in Bangkok nowadays are largely known as places where porn is screened. Scala Theatre or House RCA aren't exactly thriving; the future of the former is still unclear while the latter trudges on. So it seems a reckless idea that a 50-seat alternative cinema, Bangkok Screening Room (BKKSR), is opening later this month right in the middle of the city.
But the plan isn't an act of impulse. The trio of founders — Sarinya Manamuti, Nicholas Hudson-Ellis and Wongsarond Suthikulpanich — have been mulling over the plan for over two years. Back in 2014, they organised a pop-up open-air film screening programme at Hof Art Space which was met with great response from the public. They did a similar programme at Wonderfruit Festival last year.
"Every time we come back to Thailand, the choice of films to watch is so limited," said Sarinya.
She and Hudson-Ellis were previously based in Australia, working at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. "There's no space for alternative films, and most of the stand-alone cinemas are gone. With the chain cinemas we have in department stores, it's not balanced at all. You have only a few films that are repeatedly screened in all cinemas."
Situated in Saladaeng 1 off Rama IV, in the same building as Whitespace Gallery, the aim of BKKSR is to support emerging Thai filmmakers and provide an opportunity for local audiences to see films not usually screened in mainstream theatres.
Even though the ticket price, set at 300 baht, may seem high, it's understandable considering the location and the selection of films to be screened. Opening late August, the programme is already set: the Contemporary Film Seasons category includes the 2012 joint British-Belgian-North Korean romantic comedy Comrade Kim Goes Flying, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Palme d'Or-winning film Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). The Classic Film Seasons include Ishiro Honda's 1954 classic Godzilla and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
The venue plans to screen two films on week nights, and four on Saturdays and Sundays.
To support emerging Thai filmmakers, the ticket revenue will be split 50/50 between the cinema and the filmmaker (it's 55/45, or less generous, for filmmaker at cinema chains). Bangkok Screening Room also invites Thai independent directors to submit short films to be screened instead of commercials before every film.
Bangkok Screening Room is on Saladaeng 1. Visit www.bkksr.com.
