Goodbye, Dragon Inn

[sandman]

Legend has it that the big wheel that was up there fell on the guy who was contracted to take it down.

Another of my good friends was shooting a music video up there featuring the big wheel being dismantled. The worker was killed either later that same day or the next day.

[Poagao]

There was a fire in the building where all the brochures were, they are all gone now. I also saved a few.

[Super Hans]

How did you get the lights set up for the pics? The auditorium seems well-lit. Was there still electricity with working lights after 10 years in disrepair?

I ran around with an un-mounted flash and activated it at different areas in the space I weas trying to photograph. The exposures you see are typically over a minute long - there is absolutely no light at all in the building.
If you look at the shot of the auditorium, you can see on the left hand side a lot of light streams. This is me running up the stairs with a flashlight. In the shot of the ticket desk, you can see my hand activating the flash on the right hand side.

[steev]

I'm pretty sure I saw a movie or two at this theater when I was a student living in Yonghe in the early to mid 1990s. It had really cheap tickets and played HKG movies as well as western movies that were out of the theaters. One movies ran right after the other, with no breaks. One ticket got you as many movies as you could stand watching. No concessions so you could bring whatever outside snacks or food you wanted. The print quality was terrible, the sound system was loud, the seats were old and kind of stinky , but it was something to do on on a student's budget on a cold, grey winter's day.

I think the Taiwanese can give the Portuguese a run for their money when it comes to saudade. The island seems steeped in it.

I was planning to go over there in the next few weeks to catch one of those double bills... looks like I'm about a decade too late... I'll check out the Tsai Ming-liang movie when I get chance...
I love those old complexes... they get really interesting when they get run down ... and I really miss the old Taiwan...

[Incubus]

How did you get the lights set up for the pics? The auditorium seems well-lit. Was there still electricity with working lights after 10 years in disrepair?

I ran around with an un-mounted flash and activated it at different areas in the space I weas trying to photograph. The exposures you see are typically over a minute long - there is absolutely no light at all in the building.
If you look at the shot of the auditorium, you can see on the left hand side a lot of light streams. This is me running up the stairs with a flashlight. In the shot of the ticket desk, you can see my hand activating the flash on the right hand side.

So were there any creepy-crawlies? Or was it too dark to see? Reminds me of one of those Indiana Jones movies where Harrison Ford lights a torch in the dark and there're hundreds of snakes all around.

[scj]

Absolutely by far and away the most fascinating, coolest post on a fairly reactionary, whining website (see recent horrific posts on the Occupy Taipei Thread)...

Really fascinating way you explored this space and with an obvious love for and knowledge of Taiwanese film and culture. Very very cool man...thanks for your work and passion on this!!