Post by ron on Mar 7, 2005 10:11:37 GMT -5
IT IS the last show of the night and all is quiet inside the cinema hall save for the steady drone of dialogue emanating from the screen.
A little girl sits in the front row of the hall, alone. All of a sudden, she giggles wildly.
Her features are indistinct, shrouded by the darkness.
But when the lights come on later, the little girl has disappeared. The only evidence of her existence? A clutch of toys left behind on the seat.
Or so the story goes.
Cinemas, it seems, are not just favourite haunts of the living, but also the dead.
Any movie-goer worth the salt in his popcorn would have heard of the myriad supernatural tales revolving around Singapore's cinemas.
One of the more prevalent legends currently being circulated in Internet chatrooms like is of the 'little girl' in Golden Village Plaza's multiplex at Plaza Singapura.
Apparently, she has been spotted sitting in the front row of cinema halls 7 and 10 during the first and last shows of the day.
Story has it that cinema staff would find toys in these two halls. When they leave the toys by the exits at the end of the night, the toys would be gone the next morning - yet reappear in the front seat after the last show the same night.
Like any other urban myth, this one changes with every retelling.
Movie industry insiders LifeStyle spoke to gave differing takes on the creepy tale and its origins.
One version has it that gynaecological and paediatric clinics once occupied the space where the halls now stand.
Abortions were said to have taken place there, hence stories about patrons hearing sounds of children playing in the background during screenings.
In fact, taller tales have it that priests have performed cleansing rituals in the hall.
Armed with this information, LifeStyle set out to investigate.
Ghost in the crowds?
GOLDEN Village's managing director Kenneth Tan was more than willing to exorcise any wild story surrounding his theatres.
Yes, he said, he has heard from his employees the story of the little girl, but has dismissed them.
'This story certainly adds colour to our cinemas and we certainly can't control it,' he said with a laugh. No rites have ever been performed in his theatres, he added.
A long-time movie fanatic, he is also the chairman of the Singapore Film Society and probably the Singaporean who has seen the most number of movies.
He added with another chuckle: 'Our cinemas are perpetually crowded, so any ghost that's roaming around will have to be very brave because it needs to scare a lot of people.'
Ms Ang Gim Kiew, who has worked at the GV chain for 13 years and is currently a customer relations officer at GV Plaza, also pooh-poohed the tale.
'I have never experienced such things in our cinemas,' she said.
'I believe that as long as one's conscience is clear, one does not need to worry about such things.'
GV Plaza, located on the top floor of the shopping centre, is one of eight cineplexes that GV, Singapore's largest cinema operator, runs here. It will open a 15-hall multiplex at the upcoming VivoCity shopping mall in late 2006.
Capitol cinema.
GV Plaza has a total of 1,700 seats and was opened in December 1998, shortly after Plaza Singapura reopened after a $85 million revamp.
A spokesman for CapitaLand, which owns Plaza Singapura, confirmed that there were two clinics on the seventh floor before GV came into the picture.
But these belonged to a dentist and general practitioner.
Ms Teresa Teow, Plaza Singapura's centre manager, was tickled by the ghost story.
'This is really a tall tale. Sounds of children playing? With Plaza Singapura targeted at families, you would certainly find many of them at our mall,' she said, laughing.
Spooky tales abound
GOLDEN Village's theatres are not the only ones subjected to urban legends.
Film-maker Kelvin Tong recalled how there were stories about Shaw Organisation's now-defunct Capitol cinema in Stamford Road.
'Women who were menstruating were warned not to use its female toilet because the smell of blood would attract an old pontianak,' he said. Pontianak refers to a female vampire in Malay.
A former Cathay Organisation employee who declined to be named said that the old Cathay cinema and The Picturehouse at Handy Road gave her the creeps.
'No matter how many lights they put there, the corridors and walkways at the cinemas were always very gloomy. I found myself dashing out of the place whenever I was the last one at work,' she said.
Cathay, Singapore's first air-conditioned cinema, opened in 1939. It closed in July 2000 together with the adjoining art-house theatre Picturehouse.
During World War II, the old Cathay housed Japanese military propaganda offices. Heads of beheaded looters were also displayed in nearby Dhoby Ghaut by the Japanese during the Occupation.
Spokesmen for both Shaw and Cathay laughed out loud at the stories.
Mr Mark Shaw, senior manager of Shaw Organisation, said that he had not seen anything out of the ordinary at the old Capitol.
A spokesman for Cathay said it was rubbish that the old Cathay cinema was spooked.
Other tales haunt other cinemas.
Freelance projectionist Nicholas Joseph, who has been in the business since 1968, said that he spotted a 'shadow of a young girl' in the projection room of a movie theatre in Tanjong Katong where a friend was working. The theatre has since closed.
'I won't say if I believe in such things or not. But if such things do exist, you don't disturb them, they don't disturb you,' he added.
Mr Charles Goh, the co-founder of Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), said that another popular myth is of cinemas saving theatre seats for 'hiah di'.
'Hiah Di' is Hokkien for brothers, but can also be used as a term of respect for spirits.
'The ticket auntie at old theatres had floor plans and would mark out the seats we chose in blue crayon. But there would be seats marked in red,' he said. 'And when I sat close to these seats, I would find them chained up.'
The SPI is a group that researches into the supernatural.
Cinema operators explained to LifeStyle that, yes, some seats are 'reserved' in their multiplexes.
But there's a simple and down-to-earth reason for this: The seats are for last-minute emergencies, such as relocating patrons - living ones - who discover they have faulty seats, or when one seat has been assigned to two people.
This was especially common in the past when seat allocation was done using paper plans and pens instead of being computerised, as they are today.
Added Mr Shaw: 'I sure hope there are no ghosts in them because I use these 'house seats' sometimes.'
Magnets for ghosts?
SO WHY are movie halls so readily associated with the supernatural?
Author and theatre director-actor Jonathan Lim, who will be coming out with a book of horror stories later this year, noted that cinemas are 'transitory places' which tend to attract 'wandering spirits'.
'Spirits, with their negative auras, are repulsed by places like people's homes where there are feelings of love and community,' said Lim, who has talked to almost 200 people about their supernatural experiences for his book.
'But in cinemas, people stay for a while and leave nothing of themselves behind.'
More down-to-earth observers said that people are more willing to let themselves believe in 'ghosts' in cinemas because these are dark and enclosed spaces, perfect breeding grounds for the imagination to run wild.
As GV's Mr Tan said: 'A cinema provides an environment for escapist entertainment. You go there to be drawn into an imaginary land, to suspend your disbelief.'
Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said that people give cinema ghost stories the benefit of the doubt because it's not too close to home.
'Cinemas, like hospitals, are psychologically distinct places. It's a place where you choose to go or not to go, so people allow such legends to survive,' he said.
'Of course, with Asian culture steeped in tradition and superstition, horror movies and the fact that some of our cinemas do have gory pasts, we have a wider audience acceptability of the supernatural in our theatres,' he added.
Most cinema ghost tales are also remnants of an era when movie halls were cavernous standalone structures, noted film-maker Tong.
'They were decaying, crumbling and had creepy toilets. But the age of the multiplex probably scared the ghosts away with its newness, bright lights and posh carpets,' he said with a chuckle.
'So maybe such ghost stories are just one of the ways of reliving our memories of watching movies in all these old theatres.'
Indeed, ghost stories also serve the function of allowing a people to remember its history, said Associate Professor Kwok Kian Woon, head of the division of sociology at Nanyang Technological University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Referring to the urban legend of the old Cathay being haunted by victims of the Japanese Occupation, he said: 'They're forms of popular social memories that are transmuted into stories with supernatural, rather than purely historical, elements.'
Our own ghosthunt
SO, IS the ghost of a little girl really lurking in GV Plaza Singapura?
For the final leg of our investigation, LifeStyle went ghosthunting on Feb 15 and 16, watching the first and last shows of both cinemas 7 and 10.
I sat in the third row of both halls hoping to spot anything unusual in front.
But, sorry folks, there was no little girl, no toys, no giggles, nothing.
A little girl sits in the front row of the hall, alone. All of a sudden, she giggles wildly.
Her features are indistinct, shrouded by the darkness.
But when the lights come on later, the little girl has disappeared. The only evidence of her existence? A clutch of toys left behind on the seat.
Or so the story goes.
Cinemas, it seems, are not just favourite haunts of the living, but also the dead.
Any movie-goer worth the salt in his popcorn would have heard of the myriad supernatural tales revolving around Singapore's cinemas.
One of the more prevalent legends currently being circulated in Internet chatrooms like is of the 'little girl' in Golden Village Plaza's multiplex at Plaza Singapura.
Apparently, she has been spotted sitting in the front row of cinema halls 7 and 10 during the first and last shows of the day.
Story has it that cinema staff would find toys in these two halls. When they leave the toys by the exits at the end of the night, the toys would be gone the next morning - yet reappear in the front seat after the last show the same night.
Like any other urban myth, this one changes with every retelling.
Movie industry insiders LifeStyle spoke to gave differing takes on the creepy tale and its origins.
One version has it that gynaecological and paediatric clinics once occupied the space where the halls now stand.
Abortions were said to have taken place there, hence stories about patrons hearing sounds of children playing in the background during screenings.
In fact, taller tales have it that priests have performed cleansing rituals in the hall.
Armed with this information, LifeStyle set out to investigate.
Ghost in the crowds?
GOLDEN Village's managing director Kenneth Tan was more than willing to exorcise any wild story surrounding his theatres.
Yes, he said, he has heard from his employees the story of the little girl, but has dismissed them.
'This story certainly adds colour to our cinemas and we certainly can't control it,' he said with a laugh. No rites have ever been performed in his theatres, he added.
A long-time movie fanatic, he is also the chairman of the Singapore Film Society and probably the Singaporean who has seen the most number of movies.
He added with another chuckle: 'Our cinemas are perpetually crowded, so any ghost that's roaming around will have to be very brave because it needs to scare a lot of people.'
Ms Ang Gim Kiew, who has worked at the GV chain for 13 years and is currently a customer relations officer at GV Plaza, also pooh-poohed the tale.
'I have never experienced such things in our cinemas,' she said.
'I believe that as long as one's conscience is clear, one does not need to worry about such things.'
GV Plaza, located on the top floor of the shopping centre, is one of eight cineplexes that GV, Singapore's largest cinema operator, runs here. It will open a 15-hall multiplex at the upcoming VivoCity shopping mall in late 2006.
Capitol cinema.
GV Plaza has a total of 1,700 seats and was opened in December 1998, shortly after Plaza Singapura reopened after a $85 million revamp.
A spokesman for CapitaLand, which owns Plaza Singapura, confirmed that there were two clinics on the seventh floor before GV came into the picture.
But these belonged to a dentist and general practitioner.
Ms Teresa Teow, Plaza Singapura's centre manager, was tickled by the ghost story.
'This is really a tall tale. Sounds of children playing? With Plaza Singapura targeted at families, you would certainly find many of them at our mall,' she said, laughing.
Spooky tales abound
GOLDEN Village's theatres are not the only ones subjected to urban legends.
Film-maker Kelvin Tong recalled how there were stories about Shaw Organisation's now-defunct Capitol cinema in Stamford Road.
'Women who were menstruating were warned not to use its female toilet because the smell of blood would attract an old pontianak,' he said. Pontianak refers to a female vampire in Malay.
A former Cathay Organisation employee who declined to be named said that the old Cathay cinema and The Picturehouse at Handy Road gave her the creeps.
'No matter how many lights they put there, the corridors and walkways at the cinemas were always very gloomy. I found myself dashing out of the place whenever I was the last one at work,' she said.
Cathay, Singapore's first air-conditioned cinema, opened in 1939. It closed in July 2000 together with the adjoining art-house theatre Picturehouse.
During World War II, the old Cathay housed Japanese military propaganda offices. Heads of beheaded looters were also displayed in nearby Dhoby Ghaut by the Japanese during the Occupation.
Spokesmen for both Shaw and Cathay laughed out loud at the stories.
Mr Mark Shaw, senior manager of Shaw Organisation, said that he had not seen anything out of the ordinary at the old Capitol.
A spokesman for Cathay said it was rubbish that the old Cathay cinema was spooked.
Other tales haunt other cinemas.
Freelance projectionist Nicholas Joseph, who has been in the business since 1968, said that he spotted a 'shadow of a young girl' in the projection room of a movie theatre in Tanjong Katong where a friend was working. The theatre has since closed.
'I won't say if I believe in such things or not. But if such things do exist, you don't disturb them, they don't disturb you,' he added.
Mr Charles Goh, the co-founder of Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), said that another popular myth is of cinemas saving theatre seats for 'hiah di'.
'Hiah Di' is Hokkien for brothers, but can also be used as a term of respect for spirits.
'The ticket auntie at old theatres had floor plans and would mark out the seats we chose in blue crayon. But there would be seats marked in red,' he said. 'And when I sat close to these seats, I would find them chained up.'
The SPI is a group that researches into the supernatural.
Cinema operators explained to LifeStyle that, yes, some seats are 'reserved' in their multiplexes.
But there's a simple and down-to-earth reason for this: The seats are for last-minute emergencies, such as relocating patrons - living ones - who discover they have faulty seats, or when one seat has been assigned to two people.
This was especially common in the past when seat allocation was done using paper plans and pens instead of being computerised, as they are today.
Added Mr Shaw: 'I sure hope there are no ghosts in them because I use these 'house seats' sometimes.'
Magnets for ghosts?
SO WHY are movie halls so readily associated with the supernatural?
Author and theatre director-actor Jonathan Lim, who will be coming out with a book of horror stories later this year, noted that cinemas are 'transitory places' which tend to attract 'wandering spirits'.
'Spirits, with their negative auras, are repulsed by places like people's homes where there are feelings of love and community,' said Lim, who has talked to almost 200 people about their supernatural experiences for his book.
'But in cinemas, people stay for a while and leave nothing of themselves behind.'
More down-to-earth observers said that people are more willing to let themselves believe in 'ghosts' in cinemas because these are dark and enclosed spaces, perfect breeding grounds for the imagination to run wild.
As GV's Mr Tan said: 'A cinema provides an environment for escapist entertainment. You go there to be drawn into an imaginary land, to suspend your disbelief.'
Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said that people give cinema ghost stories the benefit of the doubt because it's not too close to home.
'Cinemas, like hospitals, are psychologically distinct places. It's a place where you choose to go or not to go, so people allow such legends to survive,' he said.
'Of course, with Asian culture steeped in tradition and superstition, horror movies and the fact that some of our cinemas do have gory pasts, we have a wider audience acceptability of the supernatural in our theatres,' he added.
Most cinema ghost tales are also remnants of an era when movie halls were cavernous standalone structures, noted film-maker Tong.
'They were decaying, crumbling and had creepy toilets. But the age of the multiplex probably scared the ghosts away with its newness, bright lights and posh carpets,' he said with a chuckle.
'So maybe such ghost stories are just one of the ways of reliving our memories of watching movies in all these old theatres.'
Indeed, ghost stories also serve the function of allowing a people to remember its history, said Associate Professor Kwok Kian Woon, head of the division of sociology at Nanyang Technological University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Referring to the urban legend of the old Cathay being haunted by victims of the Japanese Occupation, he said: 'They're forms of popular social memories that are transmuted into stories with supernatural, rather than purely historical, elements.'
Our own ghosthunt
SO, IS the ghost of a little girl really lurking in GV Plaza Singapura?
For the final leg of our investigation, LifeStyle went ghosthunting on Feb 15 and 16, watching the first and last shows of both cinemas 7 and 10.
I sat in the third row of both halls hoping to spot anything unusual in front.
But, sorry folks, there was no little girl, no toys, no giggles, nothing.