Chin Men Theater (全美戲院) - Spectral Codex
Hand-painted movies posters outside Chin Men Theater, Tainan.
Hand-painted movies posters outside Chin Men Theater, Tainan.

Chin Men Theater (全美戲院) is a second-run movie theater in Tainan famous for its hand-painted billboards. These nostalgic oil paintings are the work of local artist Yen Chen Fa (顏振發), a 40 year veteran of the dying trade profiled in the New York Post and the China Post. This is the same theater director Ang Lee used to frequent while attending high school in Tainan. To read much more deeply into the nostalgic history of this old theater check out this article in Taiwan Panorama. For more insight into the art of hand-painted movie posters check out my original post about Zhongyuan Theater (中源大戲院).

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Address: 永福路二段187號

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I am a web application developer, photojournalist, urban explorer, and history enthusiast passionate about the open web and documenting my experiences on this planet. This project was founded in the early 2010s and has evolved into a sort of personal Wikipedia of places that interest me (and often the photographs I’ve taken there). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, but spend most of my time residing in Taiwan.