Anti-Japanese movie shown at Astor Theater

One of the first theaters in Manila to open after World War II was Astor. It exhibited the anti-Japanese English movie Behind the Rising Sun in January, 1946. Hatred for the Japanese soldiers was at its height and many films, both foreign and local, carried that theme.

The blurbs and layout of Behind the Rising Sun expressed the hatred against the Jap invaders. Of course, it’s no longer politically correct to refer to the Japanese people as Japs.

Astor later became a second-run theater and then burlesque house, where many adventurous teenage males of the ’50s first saw scantily clad girls dancing to the tune of sexy music.  — RKC