Last Thursday, a friend and I decided to hang out in the Chinatown area and see a movie at Tinseltown aka International Village. It was quite late in the afternoon on one of those, oh so familiar dark, cold and blustery day. We haven't eaten all day, so we decided to try the first restaurant we came upon -- the East Fusion Food, a casual place. We decided to order from the set menu of 3 course meal for $9.99. My order consisted of hot and sour soup, two fried wontons and a generous portion of spicy friend chicken with fried noodles. Overall, it was a decent place to have a meal. It had a somewhat modern feel, more so anyways than a regular Chinese restaurant in the area.We decided to postpone the idea of walking around the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen garden, it was just too miserable. It's too bad, it would have been a 15th century view of a Chinese garden. We did, however, walk around and browsed at the various stores. We went in a store called Blim, an 80s and 90s looking establishment where they hold artsy-craftsy workshops and an art gallery up the stairs. The current exhibit was called Holy Men - a series of holographic type of images of "holy men."
Our movie was starting soon, so we headed back to The International Village. We saw, "The Illusionist." Nope, it's not the one with Ed Norton, this one is an animated French film. "Details the story of a dying breed of stage entertainer whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars. Forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theaters, garden parties and bars, he meets a young fan who changes his life forever." (IMDB) It was sweet.
What a pity that The International Village is not a more successful hub than they could be. I hope more people will discover or re-discover it. The selection of movies are very diverse, from Hollywood movies, to small art house types. The second floor consist of several art galleries and a food court while the main level holds the shops.
