仁德極樂戲院

Rende Jile Theater

March 6th, 2024

Jile Theater (極樂戲院) was established by Liu Shuisheng (劉水生) in the Huobicuo (後壁厝) area of Rende around 1950. It soon became a local flashpoint as gangster would regularly cause trouble around the theater, and the Liu family sold the business to Xu Chuanfa (許傳發), who already had some experience in the theater industry of Tainan. In those early days most performances were traditional opera, with films screened only by troupes travelling with projectors to provide entertainment in between shows.

Sometime later, Xu purchased second-hand projectors from a theater in Tainan City, and business shifted toward screening films more regularly. In those days the theater entered into a partnership with another cinema in Guanmiao, screening the same films by bicycle relay. With the decline in popularity of film in the early 1980s this theater caught the cabaret wave, experiencing another boom as it became notorious for risqué entertainment.

The good times did not last, however, and the theater closed for good in the early 1990s. Eventually it was demolished, possibly for a road widening, and replaced by a hardware store.

Note: this location has vanished. Any information presented here is only for reference.

提醒：此地點已消失，本文僅供參考用途。