Friday, April 29, 2005

Today I want to talk about Singapore. Lovely Singapore. The land of increasing prices. To all foreigners, I can say Singapore is in the process of a major revamp. A casino would soon be coming to town and yes! Singapore would be liberating itself! The gum banning country has finally opened its doors to jump on the bandwagon of vice!

But of course with great wonders come great prices. Everything in Singapore is increasing in price. And I mean everything from cigarettes to cinema tickets. I wonder, how something so innocent and common as a cinema ticket is a victim of an increase. I mean, to watch a movie is like to pour a cup of water. Singaporeans hardly ever blink an eye when they do it. It is so widespread and common that almost all in Singapore regard it as a way of life. Is it no wonder that Singapore has one of the highest movie going rate in the world?

Look at this scenario. A guy wants to ask a girl out. What does he do? “ Hi, you free today? You know I kinda sian. Want to go see a show?” See? Something so innocent yet subtle and with a high success rate. The girl would most probably say yes and viola, the both of them would be on a date. Just the two of them, with the freedom to choose the back row seats. Under the cloak of darkness they would make out and the girl would most probably agree to be his girlfriends.

Such a powerful avenue to get hitch is suddenly under threat. Imagine a ticket will now cost $9.50. A girl will not pay to make out with you so you would have to pay double. Poor guy, he will be $19 poorer at the end of the day and probably humiliated as well if the girl refuses his advances.

Anyway, my point is this inexpensive yet common form of entertainment has always been the way of life for most Singaporeans. Most of us are now questioning the hike in price. I will explain.

You see, most of us treat the cinema as our love sanctuary. You go there with your girlfriend; you watch a show that is probably inconsequential because your attention is only to get your hands beneath your date’s skirt. You start moaning, she starts moaning and very soon you would have announced to the whole cinema that the both of you are in the process of increasing Singapore’s birthrate.

Imagine, a kid watching Spongebob Squarepants and enduring these silly noises that only his parents would make behind close doors at home and what would he think? A potentially PG film is turning into a R21 one for its steamy ‘live’ action. The kid would not see another show again.

To tackle this problem, I think that the cinema is trying to ‘tax’ these couples. By increasing prices, it will force them to look for a different avenue to moan and groan. But a capitalist market cannot allow price differentiation, so there you go a price increase for everyone.

Another reason would most probably be the mess that we create after the movie. Remember the large combo that you order before a show? The popcorn and soda hardly end up in the stomach after a session of making out with your date so it would most probably end up on the floor. The cleaners must have set up a strike and demand an increase in prices. So the increase of a dollar would be going to those wages.

I wonder when are all these price hikes going to stop? I mean increase in movie prices will only encourage piracy. Our northern neighbour is selling the stuff for half a price of a movie ticket. But then again, I believe Singaporeans can’t live without the cinemas. Imagine telling a girl, “Hey, are you free today? You are so hot man, want to come over to my place to make out and watch a pirated DVD?”

It wouldn’t work right? There you go. Singaporeans basically are helpless in these situations. I just don’t like the way the operators put their reason. “Our price hike is justified. Our services have improved greatly and you the consumer are paying the quality dollar for world class entertainment…”

I bet you to the last dollar that even with the price hike, we are still not going to watch a R21 film uncensored.

3 comments:

Mr Stable Paycheck said...

hello KL!!

Anonymous said...

u r damn right buddy! sia la! jackpot!

Itchyfingers said...

Well said kengz...well said.

I can't agree more buddy.