Cinema Eskandalosa
The only visible aspects of this theater is its narrow entrance and the wall with the posters of its current features. Other than that, one can walk along Recto and hardly notice its existence. That is, except for one other thing: the stench that emanates from its interior.
It smells like a cocktail of stale sweat, rancid kitchen rag, bedraggled ditch digger’s overalls, dried infant’s puke, and God only knows how else to describe it.
Hence, there’s no way you wouldn’t notice this theater’s existence when you pass by it. However, this distinctly foul smell is rather universal, for I’ve smelled it before in New York’s seedy Times Square area before it got Disneyfied — whenever I passed by any movie house that featured soft porn or adult film. Therefore, this odor is not exclusively indigenous to this movie theater in Manila.
Even If you’ve never been anywhere near this part of Recto Avenue, you may still have seen this theater in the evening news or read about it in the tabloids — being raided by the police for the scandalous activities that some of its patrons engaged in while inside the theater. I heard it gets raided at least once a month.
Nonetheless, what I find intriguing about this particular theater are the suggestive titles of the films it features. Truth be told, whenever passing by, it has become a habit to check them out. If I were one of those romance novelists who write in the local vernacular, I might make a list of these titles for reference for some future steamy, salacious scenes.
Besides the suggestive titles you see in these photographs, the following are some I remember seeing, or had heard from friends who are into local films:
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