Films | Movies

Watching a movie in Seoul

So it was after exploring Insadong that Orchid and I decided to watch a movie while waiting for Rooster to arrive from Beijing.

The day: Tuesday. The date: Nov 4, 2008. We noticed three cinemas around the area we stayed (Jongno 3-ga) – we were spoilt for choice (of cinemas).

Time for a movie: Making our way to Cinus
cinema at Jongno 3-ga

Our happy feet took us to the Cinus cinema. We settled for the 2.50pm show. Perfect timing as we had planned to meet up with Rooster at 5pm.

We could only watch an English film as the Korean flicks did not have English subtitles. The English movies however, carried Korean subtitles. Yes, thank goodness there wasn’t any weird dubbing of English films.

We chose Leonardo DiCaprio’s Body of Lies (바디 오브 라이즈). In our limited Korean, we managed to buy tickets and locate the cinema hall on a different floor.

Waiting: Checking out our tickets while waiting to enter the cinema hall.
It was very quiet at the lobby. There were about 5 other people waiting with us :-).

Being a Tuesday afternoon, there were very little people watching the show with us. The young girl who sold us tickets at the box office doubled up as an usher when it was time to enter the hall :-).

What was the movie experience like? Well, let’s just say people still leave their handphones on while watching a show. However, the person had the courtesy to step out of the cinema to answer the call :-).

I’m not going to review the movie…all I’ll say is that it was a good show. Leo DiCaprio has come so far from his boyish Titanic days. I think he’s getting better as he gets older :-).

We watched: Body of Lies

I don’t know if it’s the same at all the other cinemas in South Korea, but a ticket to the movie costs 7,000 won (RM18) at Cinus.

12 thoughts on “Watching a movie in Seoul

  • hanh hotstuff.

    quite expensive if compared to msia.
    but cute ticket though.
    & again the spelling is funny ^^

  • Hey Orchid,

    Body of Lies is just about to open in Malaysia. This means our movie choice while in Korea was excellent! We chose a flick that wasn’t showing back home.

    Yay!

  • sasjo

    Yup, interesting ticket design. Doubles as a travel souvenir, I guess. Better than our boring, standard tickets.

  • jyiskool

    it’s normally 7000won but if your a student which i am it’s 6500won

  • Hannah

    I am so jealous you are in Korea! XD
    The movie ticket is so cute. XD
    Five dollars is really cheap for a ticket… where I am it’s about eight dollars and more in bigger cities.

    Are you going to be in Korea when Antique Bakery is released?!

  • Nozomi

    wow that is a really cheap ticket. I’m really enjoying your trip details, makes me wish i could run off to Korea.

  • yokee 요키

    7000won is quite standard in Korea in fact not much of an increase when i was there in 2005.

    cinemas in Korea dont differ much from our TGVs and Golden Screens here in Msia.

    ladies, im enjoying ur trip report but can sort of speed up a little? brings back great memories and im eager to see how seoul has changed in 3 years ^^

  • AsianReview

    i’m curious, what does the average korean cinema look like. ‘coz i’ve seen some pics of stars entering some cinemas to introduce/promote their movie but the cinema itself doesn’t look that appealing..

    actually, it’s really expensive watching movies in the US.. here in Manila (Philippines) the same price that k-popped paid would already entitle you to a lazyboy seat at the good cinemas (dolby/digital/surround sound etc).

  • alexTech

    Thanks for the updates about your trip…been excitingly waiting for them.

  • RKQS12

    Wow tickets are cheap in Korea, but it might just because it was in the afternoon and the economy is bad. 7,000 won is about 4.80USD. Movie tickets here are more like 10USD.

    ^_^ The ticket is so animated and colourful. Maybe the US is just boring.

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