In the past decade, the number of cinemas in Hong Kong is shrinking. Fewer people go to cinemas to watch movies than before. While some people may prefer staying at home to enjoy the movies, some others still love the joy of watching their favourite movies in cinemas. What is your own preference? Do you prefer watching movies at home or at cinema? How can you support the movie industry as a movie lover? Write to the editor of the Hong Kong Daily to express your views.

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter to express my views on watching movies. While the movie industry has no doubt got very good development, the number of cinemas in Hong Kong is apparently shrinking. Having said that watching movies at cinema is advantageous, I personally prefer watching movies at home.

To start with, watching movies at home is more convenient. Simply think about how much time you need to spend on dressing up for going to the cinema. It takes you a lot of time. But if you stay at home, you don’t need to spend a long time on buying tickets and picking a nice dress. Sometimes the tickets might even be sold out. If you stay at home, you don’t have to worry about that. It saves a lot of precious time and it is very convenient for you to enjoy movies at home.

Moreover, watching movies at home is comfortable. In the cinema, you have to tolerate the noises from the audience around you and they only have a seat for you to enjoy movies. However, if you stay at home, you can lie on wherever you want. You also don’t have to bear the noises from the others. You can stop and repeat any scenes that you like, you can laugh or cry out loud. It is obvious that watching movies at home is comfortable.

Lastly, watching movies at home provides you with a variety of refreshment to enjoy and they are very cheap. In the cinema, they only offer popcorn or hotdogs and the selling price is very high too. But at home you can cook any food you like, for example, cup noodles, fish balls and chips, etc. Also, the cost is much lower than buying snacks in cinema. So watching movies at home is cheap.

Having said that watching movies at home disrupts the development of movie industry. It does not take into account the legitimate sales of DVDs and blu-ray discs. It is not easy for audience to find a pirated movie on the Internet. We still have to pay on the websites, for example, Youtube or iTunes. We are not disturbing the movie industry. As a movie lover, I support the movie industry online where it is easy for everyone to get information. I can write feedback or reviews online and it can attract more people to watch the movies.

To sum up, I insist that watching movies at home is convenient, comfortable and cheap. Also, as a movie lover we can support the movie industry online. The time spent on going to the cinema for a movie is much longer than staying at home watching two movies. Though we still have to pay money when we watch films at home, it saves us time and boosts the revenue of movie industry. Therefore, I prefer watching movies at home and I highly recommend it to all movie lovers.

Yours faithfully,

Tong Tsz Ching 4A