109 cinemas - Japanese cinema review
With the release of the new Zombie Land Saga movie, I wanted to experience the movie in my prefecture of Saga. Saga city has three cinemas and all were offering something different for the movie release day. From meet and greats, to unique merch all the cinemas in Saga were bustling with the excitement of seeing the anime based in Saga hit the big screen. I finally had to the chance to check out 109 cinemas as they offered limited merch to those seeing the movie on the first day. It was also the only other chain I had not had a chance to experience yet, and I wanted to see how it compared.
Little did I know that my decision was the best choice, the 109 cinema I went to was featured in the movie itself and the excitement of this was insane.
Movie tickets can be bought ahead of schedule on the website, a barcode or code is emailed over so you can collect your tickets without having to fumble a conversation if you are not confident in the language. For this movie I was in the biggest screen which had featured stage greetings earlier in the day, the biggest screen has a small stage at the front similar to big screens in big branches of cinemas in the UK.
Like other cinemas I have been to in Japan 109 has a merch area for shows airing which can sell out very fast depending on the show. The merch for my show was selling out very quickly and there were many things displaying the sold-out kanji already. Cinemas in the UK don’t really do this; however, I have been told it’s something offered in Canada and places in the US.
The food offerings are vast, and flavours will be slightly unique to western pallets. I opted for salted popcorn which wasn’t too bad, the flavour was light. Similar again to other Japanese branches, those buying drinks and popcorn together will get a tray to make it easier to carry. These also make cleaning easier at the end too, these trays are designed to fit drinks and the snacks, in Japan it is custom to clean up after oneself. Outside of the screen a cleaning team will collect the trays and customers will dispose of the drinks and cardboard in bags.
Movies showings are displayed on a board when they are ready for entry. In Japan adverts are less lengthy than in the UK, for that I am thankful. The experience was fun, and I enjoyed my movie it’s a chain I will use again if another occasion presents itself.
