I just moved here so I don’t know B. xine” but looking at the way she drove in the alley and the thick perfume vapor like fog, I guessed “B. movie” must have acted in some action movie. I asked Mr. Tho – a “rich man” in the alley and he burst out laughing: “What actor is that! Ticket bosses at Hai Phong cinemas in the past!” Half a week later I got to know B. I complimented her on dressing like My B. Happily boasted: “In the past, you were more dressed up! Back then…”.
All roads lead to… the cinema!
That started about 25 years ago In the city of “Red Royal Poinciana”, there is no better entertainment than watching movies, even though Hai Phong has all the “modern” things, there is a theater troupe that appears from morning to night, a singing and dancing troupe jokingly called “buy fish”. ” More often performing at weddings than on “old” catwalks, there is a rowing troupe and a cai luong troupe that most Hai Phong people don’t know what they are doing?
Going to the galerie is a hobby. so noble! There are a few nightclubs, but they are unkempt and seem out of place in a busy business city. The stadium is almost no longer in motion.
All roads lead to the cinema. Hai Phong people even call the projection profession “VOSCO (Vietnam Ocean Shipping Company – symbol of wealth) on land”. No matter how proud the chef of the old ocean liner was, the woman who brought the movie theater back then was as majestic.
Hai Phong Film Company has 7 theaters. I don’t really know, but the name of the theater manager is as big as a business director. Everywhere he went, there were people who knew his face and someone who called him familiar names from Technology Products, Food, Pharmaceuticals… In the morning, he went to the theater and sat in front of a stack of ticket distribution books as high as a stack of rice books at a food store, his face as cold as ice cream. The sweet message of a few dozen owners of those notebooks: “Please give my agency a hundred tickets!”… “Give” here means to buy tickets at a “commercial” price. But anything “traded” on the black market has a price difference. Therefore, it has the same exchange value as money.
During many years of difficult subsidies, the person who wrote this line, thanks to the acquaintance of the cinema narrator, had “diplomatic” tickets that were almost nothing. lining up to measure rice, buy meat, buy firewood… things that are extremely time-consuming, hard and frustrating, but very important for survival.
Of course, people like him who don’t have red books have to do it. had to hold tightly to the theater door, jostling and pushing, trying to stick one arm firmly into the ticket window hole larger than a cat’s hole, releasing a bunch of money with a withered mouth screaming “Sister!”.
“Sister “Sitting somewhere behind an iron door, pressing two pieces of paper with a pile of change in his hand so that the guests can clench their teeth and pull it out with messy hair, but if the rich people stand about 200 meters away from the theater, there will be an army of “bees”. ” A few dozen people from “B. cinema” hand-delivered tickets for only a small fee (back then there was no word “service fee”) – a few hundred percent or so!
In the village black market ticketing B. cine is a respected boss. She divides her practice territory with bosses like “black” Kim of Tan theater with a cheerful face. Those people are willing to be courageous. As for the timid person who is slow to follow the Viet Hoi “Ky Dong” theater on May 1st… The boss conspires with some theater staff to get tickets for the “bee ve” (junior) to “beat”. The tycoon assigns contracts and sets selling prices, distributes profits, protects the territory, and rules by gypsy law. She holds a 2m long stick to command “bees and cicadas” like herding ducks. Each “bee” hid 5 to 10 tickets on his person for fear that the police would catch them and take them to the ward. At that time, the boss had to work to free himself when the “bee” was captured.
-“Where did the ticket come from?”.
Sitting and drinking coffee at Garden 22, B. Xin said. comfortably: “You bet from inside the theater! Go in with the theater manager and the ticket seller likes to split. Then “boiled” by the collaborators holding the ticket distribution book for the agency to bring back 3 and sell for 7 . Oh my! People were so nice to each other back then!”
– “Is the ticket good?”
– “Delicious!”- B drank in one gulp cup of coffee- “After every movie like “Children of the Great Mother Bear” me and the ticket sellers go to Cau Dat gold shop to play bracelets and rings.”
– “Bravo!”< /p>
– “You don’t believe it! Every day, the theater shows 6 shows, with a peak of 10 shows! The theater just fits 600 seats. Depending on the day, we “play” half the theater or 1/3 of the theater. Oh, I can’t imagine There’s no such thing as a large number of guests!”
I know! I witnessed the scene of half a police squad holding sticks and shouting to stop the flow of people with tickets and without tickets, knocking open the iron door of the Workers’ Theater to get in to see “First Love”. The 200 employees of Hai Phong Cinema called the movie “Top Secret” a “Dark Face” movie because it was shown all day in the dark.
Then in the 90s there were no longer subsidies. The entire film industry was bewildered. Hai Phong people have abandoned cinemas so that the cathedrals of the “7th Art” must indulge in everyday life. Hoa Binh Theater took down the “Queen Cleopatra” poster and displayed the sign “Beer and snacks”. The vibrant atmosphere like the old arena disappeared, the cold silence of the afternoon market dominated everything. The iron doors are wide open like a welcome invitation. The theater director stood absent-mindedly plucking his beard, looking at the 2 dozen “gods” sitting alone in the screening room, looking even more immense, and said dejectedly: “One screening per day, that’s all!”. One day there were even more service staff than the audience! Then he said as if comforting himself: “But in the bad, there is also luck. There are no more bees and bears!”. She continued: “There is no more storytelling contest!” and the ticket seller: “There is no more ticket distribution book!”. Everyone smiled at the same time… wilted like a melon.
Ticket sellers are no longer faithful to the cinema. If a boss crosses the border, a boss will retire. “B. Xine” sat cross-legged and drank coffee like Ho Tam Nuong in a tavern in Thuy Hu. Tomorrow she flies back to America. The “last Mohican” of the Hai Phong movie ticketing village left. After her there was no one else. She gave a trusted bee a few million so he could buy a cyclo and go out to find food. That’s the end of the buzzing life!
Wherever there are people, we will come!
Time passes slowly. The time of innovation has come. The country’s economic life has many strong fluctuations, leading to profound changes in the appearance of culture and art. One of its signs is the flourishing of performance activity. Art troupes and artists are bustling from south to north with new and strange programs that draw audiences to the theater. So a group of remnants of the faction’s army returned to the battlefield. Leaving the cinema, they besieged the theater where concerts by Trinh Cong Son or Dam Vinh Hung were held… Nowadays there is no longer the concept of “commercial” tickets that are as cheap as dirt, only market tickets are sky-high, making it difficult to enter the house. Singing is no longer just a dream of the poor. There are no more easy-going movie theater directors who still put political service first and only dabble in tiny tickets. They have to work with new-style impresarios who only know how to calculate profits and losses and count each ticket. Therefore, ticketing is no longer a lucrative profession like the golden age of B Cinema even though they were operating publicly. Now there are no police to arrest ticket sellers because tickets are not under state management, so they set up chairs and sit in rows right in front of the theater door like a human barrier blocking the ticket office. These are women aged 30 to 50 with natural styles from clothing to speech. Before the show even started, they filled the space in front of the theater, catching people from afar: “I’ll take you with the black jacket!” The German car is mine, etc., then rushed to “my” person in the middle of the street, thrusting the ticket in his face, inviting him to eat it like candy, so much so that I felt like they were selling wine to the French themselves! But if you are a person who is not emotionless, take care! When I finally got my hands on the “beep” ticket, I tried to buy it because this was my “opening” ticket. Otherwise, I’ll instantly turn into a lady who falls into all the most diverse types of sidewalk language. Most viewers accept the “beep” service. (The writer temporarily uses this word because today there are no more ticket bosses like “black K” or “B xine”, so there are no more hands and feet-“bees”. Tickets operate strongly independently, whoever gets it done). He or she rode a motorbike to the theater door and sat on the sidewalk, spending a few tens of thousands more dong to get a pair of “beautiful” tickets in the front row without having to go into the box office. Even if he goes in, it won’t be easy, the bees will sting him with words that make him want to run away immediately because he suddenly understands: Arguing with a woman who is lost in language is a dangerous and useless thing to do. Being so active, there are many times when the program collapses, the votes are dead, but the tickets are still alive!
Where do you get the tickets? Ho bought from the impresario himself the cheapest tickets (for those riding the train) and the most expensive tickets (for those riding the car). The most popular faction was bought from people on the city’s art appraisal council. They often do not use “standard” gift tickets, an outdated privilege that has fallen from the subsidized era and is given to the recipient and sold at a cheap price, of course!
Today’s economy It’s difficult and people have little money. Artistic culture is at a standstill from composition to performance. The “stars” are fading away. The singing is also boring and boring. Theaters in Hai Phong began to darken more than brightly. On a gloomy day, everyone came into the theater, talked and laughed loudly, argued and scolded their children, and the reformed singer felt as if they were at home! “Bees” have a friendly relationship with the theater staff, sometimes inviting the sisters to sit with them to tell stories about the past and complain about difficult business times. Maybe there’s so much coal that God loves you!
In 2008, the director of Hai Phong Cement Company became the boss of the Hai Phong football team. Lach Tray Stadium suddenly became crowded like ants. In 2009, he bought famous Brazilian player Delnison. It’s hard to express the excitement of Hai Phong people, including the girls! They were present at the soccer field. Tickets were only 100,000 VND, but Port players were not afraid of selling prices that were 3 or 4 times higher than those of the “bees”. However, after a while, the football team’s manager became a star in the political sky of the football city of Hai Phong, and so the people of the Port area began to ignore football. The girls understand deeply that “suffering does not belong to anyone”. However, in accordance with the principle “Wherever there are many people, we will come!” Occasionally they go to My Dinh Stadium (Hanoi) to serve the people there and go to Do Son twice a year to welcome tourists to attend the buffalo fighting festival.
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X is a ticket seller with a cheerful and humorous expression. But behind the bright smiles hide so much sadness. After all, this profession does not make them rich. She said: “It’s very hard! It’s not easy to get people’s money these days. If I had another job that was enough to make a living, I would immediately quit being a ticket seller. My younger brother’s children are not proud when someone calls their mother a faction! Anyway, through ticket selling activities, the Bees turned into a crowd of enthusiastic advertisers, and the collaborators voluntarily expanded the theater’s operating space to the street, giving the theater a necessary lively atmosphere. Ticket prices have become a unique barometer to measure the “hotness” of performance stages. It is just a profession to make a living according to the rules of the market economy.
Ha Linh Quan
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