One-man cinema – fighting to stay in business!

Near Douliou Station in Yunlin County stands a cinema with a 30-year history. With the cinema’s hand-painted movie billboards and old-fashioned seats, there is a real sense of nostalgia, giving people the distinct feeling they have been transported back in time. Nicknamed Uncle Wang, proprietor Wang Gang-yi is the cinema’s only full time employee and responsible for everything from the management of the cinema and selling tickets to projecting the movie, painting the billboards and cleaning the cinema - this incredibly heavy workload is a result of a marked decline in business.

“Originally, there were ten employees working here, now, I am the only one left. We have a wonderful space here and the equipment, seats and screen are all in good working order, so it’d be a real pity to just pull the plug on the place…I guess that’s why I’ve battled to keep the place open”, said Wang Gang-yi. After witnessing Uncle Wang’s difficulty, a year ago student Chen Xuan-yang decided to help out by becoming a volunteer assistant, to share the workload and spread the word about the cinema. From the cinema guestbook entries, one can see the real sentiment cinema goers have for the establishment. Although the cinema has financial problems, Wang Gang-yi is determined to keep things running as normal, and continue to provide locals with a top-notch place to watch movies.
 

PeoPo 公民新聞

One-man cinema – fighting to stay in business!

URL:

http://www.peopo.org/portal.php?op=viewPost&articleId=98750

(以下是中文對照)

一人電影院　阿伯苦撐經營 ( 中正E報 )

雲林斗六車站附近有一間具有30年歷史的老電影院，戲院內手工繪製的電影看板、老式的座椅，都讓人有時光倒流的懷舊感。綽號「阿伯」的王剛毅是這裡唯一一 位正職員工，他身兼經營者、售票員、放映師、清潔工跟看板畫師，因為電影院的生意大不如前，也面臨了經營上的困難。王剛毅說，「這裡本來員工十幾個，現在 剩下我一個，戲院裡面的設備，椅子、空間、螢幕，設備都很不錯，把它收掉好可惜，所以就一直把它堅持下去。」看到王剛毅的辛苦，在雲林就學的陳宣仰，一年 前開始自願當起他的助理，幫忙分擔工作，也讓當地人共同的回憶可以繼續留存，從店內的留言本可以看出顧客對這裡的感情，雖然榮景不在，王剛毅還是會堅守崗 位，提供在地人一個看電影的好去處。

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