Les Miserables - midnight show at MBO, Melaka Mall

My wife and I decided to catch the midnight screening of "Les Miserables" at the MBO Cinema at Melaka Mall. The show was great, though our experience at the cinema left us feeling a little miserable ourselves....

Midnight show. Haven't been to one in a very long time. Alas, due to a busy day schedule, this now seems a viable option. The show was scheduled to start at 11.30pm. I went over earlier to purchase the tickets. This wasn't really necessary, as the MBO Cinema at Melaka Mall was a little "underutilized" these days.

The ticketing counter was now closed off. You now purchase the tickets at the refreshment counter, alongside the soda and popcorn.

Walking into Melaka Mall after closing hours to catch the midnight show is a different experience. During the day, apart from the ground floor, there was usually not much activity in the upper floors, save for the cinema. Many vacant lots serve as a testament to stunted growth of this shopping mall.

The cinema itself was a little run-down, leaving me feeling that it was only a matter of time before the inevitable ensued. With that I mean closure - either they must be making good profits by extreme cost-cutting, or they must be running at a loss....

Anyway, walking in the screening hall number 6, the guide lines to the row of seats were all functioning. At least the ones to our row. Such was not the case when we recently watched "The life of Pi", another great show you should not miss.

It was eerily quiet walking into the cinema hall, as the show apparently just started, minus the audio. We were not alone there, as there was one other large family watching too, and also annoyed by the muted audio. A member of that group and I went out to alert the cinema staff and also asked for them to start again from the beginning.

A few minutes later, the sound came on, but alas the staff did not restart the movie. A bit peeved, I turned my attention to the large screen ahead and soon lost myself in the world of 19th century France.

Les Misérables, is pronounced as "lay" (as in "chicken lay egg") "miserab" ("rab" - sounds like "rub" but with a "p" instead of "b"). Well, that's French - I'll bet Chinese sounds just a peculiar to the Europeans....


It was a musical, so there was singing all the way from start (after they fixed the sound problem) to ending. Much like Cats and Phantom of the Opera. The interesting bit is the actors who you'd never thought would start in a musical, like Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator). I had my doubts at first, especially after seeing Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia, but overall, Les Miserables left me surprised in a good way.

Somehow, I had an impression that Anne Hathaway would do well in a musical, but perhaps that was because she had previously starred with Julie Andrews, another great singer, in the Princess Diaries. In any case, her rendition of "I dreamed a dream" was the best one I have every listened to. Now I know the background of the song that launched Susan Boyle to stardom.

Of course, we have the unmistakable Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter for comic relief in an otherwise serious and emotional story.

The show was roughly 2.5 hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it (again, after the fixed the sound). At the end, the lights did not come on and there was no one to open the door to the exit, as always. In fact, exiting the cinema, we found that outside the lights were all switched off and closed down, except for one or two lights that made it possible to get out without becoming one with the carpet. I am a bit puzzled if this is the norm, or was the staff already abandoning their post before the show was over?

Lucky the door to the cinema was not locked - otherwise I fear we would have to spend a night at the cinema. There was in total less than 10 movie-goers that night - just us and the other large family.

In summary, it was a really good show, and just the lapse in management of the MBO cinema at Melaka Mall left marring an otherwise totally awesome experience.

My hope is that the management can take a careful look at the overall outfit and see how to achieve their cost control targets without giving substandard service to the patrons. I sincerely wish that they will improve and continue to sustain their business for many years to come, but not to loose sight of customers such as us!