It's Sunday morning and the Cine-Art theatre in Kowloon Bay is screening the 1989 mainland production The Birth of New China. A cacophony of crowd noise engulfs the cinema and hits its peak when Gu Yue, the late actor who played Mao Zedong in the film, proclaims: 'The People's Republic of China ... is founded!'
Cheers ring throughout the screening hall, but when the lights go up, it becomes obvious that the noise came from the film: only 56 people came for the screening, barely filling a quarter of the hall's 250-odd seats.
'It's an old film, so we are satisfied with the turnout,' says Chui Hin-wai, who oversees Cine-Art's operations as the head of Sil-Metropole Organisation's theatre managing department.
'The Birth of New China was part of the Chinese Filmshop showcase, which comprises old classics - ticket prices are low [at HK$20] and we haven't spent much on publicity, so we are happy with the turnout.'
Birth... has already outperformed Country Teachers (1994), which brought in just 37 customers on Saturday, as well as Postmen in the Mountains (1999) and Going to School with Father on My Back (1998), which brought in 46 and 57 patrons respectively the previous weekend.
But it takes more than just the age of the films to explain the number of empty seats. The lack of interest in these productions mirrors the fate of most mainland movies released in Hong Kong in recent years; they inevitably receive a far cooler reception here than they do in the north.