西螺一生戲院

July 31st, 2017

Xiluo is justifiably famous for Xiluo Theater, the Japanese colonial era theater located close to the architectural wonders of Yánpíng Old Street (延平老街), but this small town on the south bank of the sluggish Zhuóshuǐ River (濁水溪) was once home to two additional theaters. Almost no mention of these other theaters can be found except in this news report about a local painter—but while browsing around satellite view on Google Maps I managed to locate Yīshēng Theater (一生戲院), also known as Huáshēng Theater (華聲戲院).

The bland, utilitarian appearance of this old theater in Xiluo is consistent with the architectural trends of the KMT authoritarian era. The metal frames mounted on the front would have once held hand-painted movie posters.

The process of identifying Yisheng Theater was not straight-forward. Most of the characters on the façade are missing, introducing considerable ambiguity. A closer examination of the metal brackets that once secured the mystery characters was not conclusive. Both sources cited above cite three theaters in town: the famous Xiluo Theater and two lesser known theaters, Yuǎndōng Theater (遠東戲院), and Yisheng. Initially I figured this must be Yuandong Theater, for the pattern of corrosion and placement of the metal brackets suggest a full-sized character in the first position, but that was incorrect. At an exhibition of the photography of Lee Kai-Ming (李開明) at Huashan Creative Park in November 2017 I noticed he had identified a completely different building as Yuandong Theater. By a process of elimination—assuming there were indeed only three theaters in town—this must be Yisheng Theater¹.

This theater was probably converted into a gambling den or seedy karaoke bar after the cinema closed.

Nothing much to see inside. The door is wide open but you’ll find only dust and footprints in here.

One last look at another abandoned theater in central Taiwan.

Yisheng Theater was established in 1979 and probably went out of business in the 1990s like many other standalone theaters in central Taiwan. Evidently it was converted for use as a discount supermarket and perhaps a gambling den or seedy karaoke bar at some point, for the interior has been renovated to remove most fixtures of movie theater design. I wandered around inside for a little while but found nothing of interest—it seemed to be merely a dark and hollow shell. Well, they can’t all be cool, but this one is on the rental market. Anyone fancy a use for this old theater in Xiluo?

One last note: while the theater was open and accessible on my first visit it was closed the second time I stopped by to confirm the name. From other reports it seems the interior was stripped down to bare concrete but the original projectors were left behind.

At the time I was asking about Yisheng Theater, which probably sounded close enough for confirmation. ↩

Warning: this location is abandoned, hazardous, or otherwise neglected and may be unsafe and even dangerous! Exercise appropriate precautions when visiting.

警告：此處已廢棄或長期無人管理，可能存在潛在危險。造訪時請務必提高警覺，並做好相關安全防護措施。

Map

Address: 雲林縣西螺鎮正興里源成路25號

Recorded On

May 30th, 2017

Sources

New Taipei Gold Museum Report: In Search of Old Theaters, Hsinchu Municipal Cultural Center, 2019 《新北市立黃金博物館「尋找老戲院身影」》，新竹市立文化中心，2019

Themes

Theaters in Taiwan (台灣老戲院)

Series: Taiwan Summer Road Trip 2017

In the summer of 2017 I borrowed a scooter to ride to a music festival in Nantou and only returned it several months later. It wasn’t a continuous road trip—I’d leave the scooter parked at various HSR stations as I slowly made my way around central and southern Taiwan—but each leg of the trip usually involved 3 or 4 days of riding. In the end I gathered enough material for 60 or 70 posts, only some of which have been published.