Lights, camera, 'action'

Lights, camera, 'action'

A journey deep inside Bangkok's underground porn cinemas reveals a secret world of sex and prostitution

From the outside, the cinema looks dated but otherwise ordinary, a seemingly forgotten victim of Bangkok's rapid gentrification. "Now showing five films back-to-back all day long," reads the sign on the front of the building.

Open the doors of discreet cinemas like this one in the Yaowaraj area and a decidedly non-discreet lifestyle opens.

But few of the people who visit this run-down cinema in Klong Toey are interested in film; they are here for something else.

"People who go inside that movie theatre are not normal," Pa Porn, who runs a noodle stall less than 100m from the main entrance, told Spectrum.

"It's a good thing that I am not living in this area, otherwise I'd be really concerned about my children's welfare. What state of mind do you think those people might be in after spending hours watching that kind of movie?"

The cinema is one of the so-called "second-class movie theatres" which still operate in Bangkok, a relic of the city's cinematic boom in the 1960s which provided many Thais with their first taste of Western culture.

Nowadays, the standalone cinema buildings are mostly derelict, as customers flock towards shiny new megaplex centres inside Bangkok's myriad shopping malls.

But for a small group of people, the cinemas still provide an essential service.

RAISING THE CURTAIN

Spectrum is aware of at least three second-class cinemas that remain open in Bangkok. One is located right alongside the BTS tracks, its main entrance opening onto the main road where people wait for buses or jostle for walking space.

The cinema building is nearing a state of disrepair, but echoes a sense of a past elegance now long forgotten.

The main foyer of the cinema is decorated with old film posters. To the left, a woman sits behind a ticket booth with the number "60" emblazoned on it, signifying the price of a ticket.

"How many?" the woman asked, casting an unfriendly stare through the frosted glass with a round hole cut in the middle.

Once the single ticket was purchased, the woman stuck the stub out through the hole in the glass and pointed towards the main entrance of the cinema, where a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt tucked into black trousers stood in front of a closed red curtain.

The ticket was torn in half, the ticket collector keeping one part and giving back the other. Then he opened the red curtain to reveal the space which Pa Porn, the noodle vendor, had described as a gathering place for "abnormal" people.

SECRET LIVES

When first walking in, the cinema looks very much like an ordinary movie theatre, with hundreds of cheap red leather spring chairs placed in gently tiered rows.

But this is no ordinary cinema, and there will be no Hollywood blockbusters shown on its screen. The films are all R-rated; soft-core pornography showing men and women in realistic love scenes.

Another key difference is the audience. Despite the hundreds of vacant seats, the few dozen patrons - all men - choose not to sit, instead congregating at the cinema entrance, behind the back row and outside the toilets.

"Are you looking for company?" an older Chinese-looking man in his fifties asked as he approached Spectrum. "You seem new here. If you are looking for some company, this is the place to be. If you want some action, you have to go up all the way to the back of the theatre. You will find what you are looking for."

Spectrum followed the man's instruction to see what kind of "action" was going on at the back of cinema, and spotted at least 30 men walking around the big open area behind the back row. Some were pairing up, some gathered as a big group at a corner. Others stood alone.

"Have you found what you were looking for?" the same man asked.

He explained that most of the people who come to this type of cinema are not coming for the film itself. "They are here purely for the action."

One of the men, who identified himself only as Pon, lives outside Bangkok but frequently makes the trip into the city to attend the cinema.

"I am a married man. I have a wife and kids. I have been married for so long and my sexual tastes have changed," the 52-year-old said. "Now I like younger men, and that is what I am here for."

Mr Pon sneaks away from his family and business once a week to attend the second-class movie theatre. In an attempt to avoid bumping into anyone he knows, he moves around to the many different cinemas that operate in Bangkok.

"This is a secret part of my life. I like having occasional fun with some young men, but I still want to keep my family life."

THE LADIES IN RED

Spectrum ventured to a second cinema, located closer to Bangkok's business district, after reading online that it offered more hard-core adult films.

The look and feel of the cinema was much the same as the first one, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. "No photography allowed inside," a woman yelled out from behind the ticket booth as we entered, without revealing her face.

Spectrum handed the ticket to the collector, who tore it in half, gave a friendly smile, and warned: "Watch your wallet and phone."

Inside the cinema, there are fewer men hanging around, but there is a group of transgender women, all wearing red dresses. Some also wear blood-red lipstick, a red purse or red high heels.

This cinema is smaller than the other one and has only two entrances concealed behind a red curtain. Once the curtain is opened, a 5m by 10m screen is revealed showing a hard-core Japanese pornographic film.

While R-rated films depicting nudity and sex are technically legal for viewers aged over 20, these hard-core porn movies are not — nor is the activity which goes on inside the cinema.

After walking around the whole theatre, Spectrum took a seat in one of the many vacant chairs. A short time later, one of the transgender women walked over and struck up a conversation.

"Are you lonely?" she asked in a deep masculine voice. The transgender woman identified herself as Nong, 43. She has been a sex worker at the cinema for the past eight years. "I started coming here as a customer at first," Nong said. "Then I began to cruise around and make some money from having quick fun with lonely men who came here. I then told my friends, and now here we are working together in this cinema."

Nong, who acts as a mama-san at the theatre, told Spectrum she earns at least 1,000 baht on a regular day, and sometimes up to 3,000 baht on weekends and public holidays.

"I know every girl [ladyboy] who works here. If anyone wants to come here to do this job, they will have to go through me first," she said.

Nong explained that almost all of her customers are married men, many of them heterosexual, who are looking for some "stimulation" while watching the pornographic films.

"It's dark in here, so no one can really see us," she said. "We wouldn't stand a chance outside if they saw clearly what we look like. I have to admit that none of us are good looking, but we can do a real fine job."

LACKING PROTECTION

PHOTOS: BANGKOK POST LIBRARY

Nong admits to performing some sexual services without a condom. "I am concerned about my health, we all are," she said. "We try to practise safe sex most of the time, but my stomach needs to be fed, I have bills to pay, I don't think I have that much negotiating power."

Surang Janyam, the director of Service Workers in Group Foundation (Swing) Thailand, explained that transgender sex workers in movie theatres are among the most vulnerable groups since they have limited options in term of work and have less access to safe sex than other sex workers.

"They have to face health and safety risks on a daily basis," Ms Surang said. "They might get robbed, or be forced to have unprotected sex. Since they are not young or attractive, their choices are limited."

But Ms Surang said that the answer does not lie with the police. She said to raid the cinemas and remove the sex workers would not be a permanent way to solve the problem, as they would always come back for quick and easy money if society has nothing better to offer them.

"We are not trying encourage them to continue working as sex workers, but we are trying to educate them to be safe in their job," she said.

"Eventually, if they are ready to do something else, we are here to walk them through the next step of their lives."

PLEASING THE MASSES

Ever since megaplexes grew in popularity — despite their high prices for tickets, popcorn and beverages — the number of people attending second-class cinemas has dwindled rapidly. To survive, cinema owners had make to themselves more competitive.

"First they cut their prices, and then they offered more movies for the same price," Prasit, a former ticket collector at a second-class cinema which is now closed, explained.

Mr Prasit, who is now in his fifties, said owners began offering two movies back-to-back for the cost of a single ticket, and even began showing films back-to-back all day long with a half-hour break between which customers could also view with a single ticket.

"The customers could come in at any time and can spend all day if they wanted to," he said. "But even that still couldn't pull back customers from the shopping mall cinemas."

A bit over a decade ago, the cinemas played their trump card. "They decided to show erotic films to gain back some customers, which worked out quite well for a while," Mr Prasit said. "They then moved from erotic movies to hard-core porn films. That's when I started to see hundreds of people back in the cinema again."

Still, the cinemas are slowly on their way out, and police say they are better left to die a natural death.

'UNDER CONTROL'

Pol Col Chitpop Tomuam is superintendent of the Anti-Human Trafficking Division 1 in Bangkok, and is in charge of prostitution and human-trafficking cases. He told Spectrum that police are keeping prostitution "under control" by assigning local officers in each area to "keep their eyes" on the issue.

"It has been a while since we last raided a second-class cinema, but we always keep these places under control," Pol Col Chitpop said. (Story continues below)

IN PLAIN SIGHT: The entrance to one second-class cinema opens onto a busy Bangkok street.

He explained that his office is focusing more on human trafficking issues involving migrant workers, child traffickers and forced labour. However, he said prostitution is an issue that police are always concerned about.

Spectrum also contacted Pol Lt Col Amnart Harn-Chana, deputy superintendent of Bang Sue police station and chief of the area's crime suppression unit. One of the city's second-class movie theatres is located in his jurisdiction.

He admitted to Spectrum that the cinemas are of little concern to police as there are bigger and more serious issues for officers to deal with.

"To be honest with you, we are focusing on female prostitution more than transgender. There are a lot more of them in front of Chatuchak park," Pol Lt Col Amnart said.

He explained that since the last police raid on the Bang Sue cinema in 2005, the movie theatre has stopped showing hard-core pornographic films. Therefore, he said, police have stopped sending investigators there.

"We are taking serious action against underage and forced prostitution, which really only applies to females. Transgender sex workers are doing this voluntarily, so we don't really do anything about it," he explained.

"In order to charge them with prostitution, we would have to arrest them while they are trading money for sexual services. Otherwise the best we can do is to charge them for 'strolling around for prostitution', which carries a very small penalty of no more than a 500-baht fine," he added.

Thung Mahamek deputy superintendent Pol Lt Col Chaiyapon Ake-kul, who also head his area's crime suppression unit, said he was also keeping an eye on the problem but did not pay that much attention to what was going on inside the cinemas.

"The owner of the cinema [in my jurisdiction] is going to sell the land soon. Last time I heard, they are about to close the cinema. So we are no longer controlling it since it is going to be over soon anyway," Pol Lt Col Chaiyapon said.

He also told Spectrum that it would be easy to raid the cinema, but the consequences would not necessarily be positive.

"I could even raid it on daily basis, but there would be many people who would suffer because of it," he said.

"What are those transgender sex workers going to do if we shut the cinemas? I feel bad for them as human beings. I think relevant government units should provide some sort of career or solution for these people so they can earn a living by doing something else instead of having to work as prostitutes.

"We can raid the cinema, shut it down and throw the sex workers out on the street. But what's next for them? If there is nothing better for them to do, they will eventually get back to this type of business again," he added.

BREAKING THE TABOO

Naiyana Supapung is the coordinator of the Teeranat Kanjanaauksorn Foundation, which works to promote gender and sexual justice. She explained that these second-class cinemas were serving as a hub for sexual activity mainly among bisexual and gay men and transgenders.

She said humans in general will always look at people with diverse sexual preferences as an unusual phenomenon.

At some point in the past, heterosexual men who had lower incomes were the regular customers of the second-class cinemas. Ms Naiyana explained that over time, this type of cinema had simply transformed into a space for men to express their sexual needs away from the public eye.

"What is unusual about this is not why there are males coming to this type of cinema, but why there are no single females going to watch erotic films as well," she said.

"Our society believes that to express sexuality among men is acceptable, while it is taboo for women to do so.

"Men have no limit in terms of expressing their sexual needs. They can go to see porn films, have multiple wives or even pay for sex, but it is completely opposite when women are doing it," she added.

Ms Naiyana said the reason why these porn cinemas have become the gathering place for bisexual and gay men is not normal in the eyes of most heterosexual people.

"The perception is different because of their own prejudices: that a space where people can express their sexual needs is reserved for men only," she said.

"It is not unusual that these people use movie theatres as the place to cruise for sex, but it is unusual that some people see this as a problem.

"When there are spaces for them to express their sexual needs, they just go and do it since it is natural thing to do."

BEHIND THE BLUE DOOR: Financially crippled by the rise of the megaplex, many of Bangkok’s standalone cinemas turned to erotica to attract customers. PHOTO: THANARAK KHUNTON

ON-SCREEN DEATH: Only a few moviegoers turned up to see Chalerm Thai Theatre’s final show before the city landmark was torn down in 1989. PHOTO: BANGKOK POST LIBRARY

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