Something is happening to my life. I can feel it. I have watched two movies in one week! For someone who has watched maybe five movies in the last twenty years, that is saying something.
When I was barely five years old, my parents were in a crucial state of their life. My father was playing mahjongg every night, and my mother would drag me to watch movies while we waited for his games to finish. My parents fought over his mahjongg playing. They were at the verge of separating. I remember sitting in the gutter of Rizal Avenue after watching a movie at Life Theater. Life Theater was the best place one could watch a movie at that time. It seemed difficult to catch a bus back to where my Dad was playing mahjongg. I still have this image of myself sitting on the edge of the busiest street at that time, not far from Quiapo Church, watching the lights of vehicles pass by, while my mother tried to flag down a passing jeep or bus.
If we returned to my Ninong’s house where my Dad was playing, and my Dad still wasn’t finished with his game, I would sleep on the sofa. Those clink-clink of the mahjongg tiles were part of my life. That is how I got my name: Elsie Tampong. “Pong” is a cry a player would make if he had four pieces of the same number and character. There I was, watching those bejewelled hands of the players scramble the mahjongg pieces, make a fence then play.
When did I stop watching movies? When did my Dad stop playing mahjongg? I remember that my Ninong, the owner of the mahjongg place, bred giant dogs. German Shepherd dogs were his favorites. I felt I grew up with the dogs. One day, the huge German shepherd dog bit me. It must have been a big bite, because I remembered my Ninong cradling me in his arms, saying “sorry”, over and over. After that incident, the mahjongg playing stopped. So did our watching movies.
In our Catholic School, the Nuns showed movies on campus. Cecile B de Mille’s “Ten Commandments” goes to the top of the list of those movies that we saw. Then “Gone with the Wind”, and “The Sound of Music.” Of course, as teenagers, we watched the Paul Anka and Elvis Presley movies.
After that period, watching movies became few and far between for me. aFter I got married and lived abroad, the countries we lived in had movies in their language. I never watched a movie in Kenya nor South Africa while I was here. When I studied Korean language in Seoul, it was part of the curriculuum to watch Korean movies. I loved the classical Korean movie, set in the olden days when the men were kings of their homes, and women were beautiful. Deep in my heart, I knew that Korean movies would be a big hit internationally, so long as they had an English subtitles. Japanese movies. except for the Kurusawa movies shown abroad, never had sub-titles. So I never watched them while we were stationed in Nagoya.
My husband and I have been back for almost twenty years in the Philippines. I can count with one hand how many times I have watched a movie in a movie theater since we returned. One time, son Jun invited us to the premier of a movie he edited, during one of Toronto’s annual film festivals. That was a memorable experience. Jun is a film editor and director. During one of his recent visits to Manila, we also watched a movie together.
This week we saw two movies. My husband has been ill for a month, and his doctor advised him to exercise, though not too strenously. He always liked to walk at the Mall for his exercise. So, I thought, “Why not walk at the Mall and end it with a movie?
I just hope there are enough movies to choose from, if we are going to be doing a lot of walking at the Mall……
Elsietampong's Blog 