Tokyo’s Oldest Movie Theaters Closing for Good.

Tokyo’s Oldest Movie Theaters Closing for Good.

Zatoichi, Too
(Photo by Rick Hall, via flickr. Creative Commons Rights Reserved)

It’s sad news, and a sad era for movie theaters everywhere, but for anyone who’s had the opportunity to go to an Asakusa (Old Tokyo) theater and watch movies of a bygone style (New Wave, chambara, etc.), the closure of Denkikan Theaters is a tragedy. These are storied venues for film-watching that date back to the early 1900s when “moving pictures” were still narrated by a benshi and live musical accompaniment.