after what seemed like a long, cold Winter – remaining quite chilly most of early Spring 2015 : The second sequel to Marvel’s super-heroe “We Do it Together !” movie was the first to open in South Korea on a Week-Day reminiscent of quite a hot Summer day . and to watch the year’s greatest block-buster, even to catch’em all in one big scene : we chose to watch it in supposedly-the largest screen in the Whole Wide World, though NOT iMAX -_- so this is our story :
[ YEONGDEUNGPO TRAIN STATION ] is one of the older train stations surviving the War aside from SEOUL just up North and WangSimNi far-East – lastly refurbished in 1986 to house a branch of Lotte Department Store to become one of the earlier shopping complexes . know in advance in addition to being the humble (said politely but poor and out-door market than residence) area, its whole neighborhood on the West side of the station was one of a hand-ful of red-light districts around the Capital, but cleared though NOT so much as YongSan so some still remain just North-West of the Station in the guised-form of massage or what-ever parlours (like ear-cleaning) and more if yonder West across the newly-developed complex .
this area is quite complicated to nagivate for the old town still exist, so I suggest you exit on ground level and walk across the street (again possible being an old neighborhood) from the Station’s North-West entrance to the Mall . however if you cannot find your way out of this SEOUL Subway Line 1 YeongDeungPo Station : head for Exits 3 or 6 – opposite side from 1, 2 or 4 – and go along where the crowd goes which is along the again old under-ground apparel shopping arcade, and after a few minutes you willl see the connected entrance to ShinSeGae Department Store to your Left .
[ TIMES SQUARE ] Yes you have Worldly-known land-marks of the same name in Manhattan, San Francisco but Orientals like to make it into a massive multi-shopping complex like Hong Kong in Causeway Bay (Oh, me-like, beaucoup).. thus the Korean counter-part built right across its existing competitor Lotte right-on YeongDeungPo Train Station . interesting for the still-humble neighborhood around it serves elders while younglings are in-here, although both not as riche as their counter-parts in other mammoth shopping complex around Metropolitan SEOUL . and you can feel business is bad as the whole place is virtually empty even right-after business hours – and the very reason I like this place although I myself have to travel to get here – on all its buildings that form this complex,
namely (from closest to the train Station and heading West) two wings of ShinSeGae Department Store, Amoris Wedding & Convention Hall, Times Square Mall including Atrium, CourtYard Marriott Hotel, eMart Super-Mart and CGV Movie Theatre .
on the ground floor at the connecting hall in-between ShinSeGae Department Store and Times Square Mall : an Avengers show-case was on with statues of many of its super-heroe members – to be introduced on a separate Post 😉
aside from shopping if you are seeking to eat before or after the movie : there are many smaller eateries cluttered on the first under-ground level as well as eMart Super-mart . then up on the 4th floor where the CGV Movie Theatre ticketing is : there are a dozen of larger brand-name so ofcourse more expensive restaurants but none fully Westernized . all are virtually empty just befor dinner time WeekDay, except italian fusion (meaning anything-goes) SeoGa & Cook : probably the largest place and full of younglings – interesting as young couples commute to inside of this complex, while the outside neighborhood is still run by old-timers .
I sought to take-up the one with best view of the mall at the corner seats of Chinese Sichuan House but they only sat you in-side, so the best might be none other than one of the Korean branches of Taiwanese dim-sum-fames Din Tai Fung 😉 where they offered 20% discount if you had a movie ticket ! however if you’re on a date : Mad For Garlic steak-house at the right of movie theatre entrance might fancy you, but pitch-black dark and did not seem feasible just before movie-viewing .
[ CGV STARIUM ] entrance looks small on the out-side as they have to house many restaurants all-around – introduced on our associate Korea Expat BLog, but they open a whole new Universe once in . after your choice of popcorns you climb another floor-up on stairs or escalator to reach a how-daring “The Largest Screen on Earth” to-date, that is aside from Sydney, Australia .
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Post-Millennium South Korea : you reserve your tickets mostly though your iPhone or smart-phone app and choose from diagrams of seats in each viewing hall . as Starium is supposed to be the widest and in diagram also : the hall in reality was quite-high in ceiling also, while the width seem less than anticipated because it was quite curved . sitting mid-way : the screen seemed to face much up-ward, so the ideal place would be more towards the rear .
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as soon as you sit and try to get the feel of the viewing experience . I suddenly wonder when was the last time : parts of the movie screen was obstructed by the head of the person sitting in front . for you had a wide vantage point here and even the tallest of human – wait, maybe The Hulk could as the bottom of the screen was one full vertical head-length above the person sitting in front of me . I had worries for ealier visitors’ blogs mentioned the screen is too wide to perceive it all at once : but no problem, this was perfectly huge for an univerally super heroe motion picture !
( Post-Script ) after the movie, and especially if it ends late at night : it is better to NOT go down the way you came-up, but straight out-side onto the whole roof-top of the latest Shopping Mall in the Capital of SEOUL, there-fore all of Korea (with the exception of Centum City in the Port City of Busan or Pusan). because CGV theatre is at the North-West corner of the mall, and YeongDeungPo Station at the other end at South-East : you get to go past their open-park or garden – quite artificial though, and CourtYard Marriott under the stars at night . it is quite an experience much like the strange Universe of The Avengers //
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