Cinema House Shinei

The Hamamatsu International Theater originally located on 49 Asahi-cho, or at the east side of the Hamamatsu Telegraph and Telephone Office, opened its doors on July 21, 1954 as a 500-seat half-wooded single-screener. It originally started life as a Nikkatsu house for only its first 11 days of operation, before changing its policy to American first-run films.

During the stunt, at the time of opening, the management confirmed that at the time of opening, they were in the middle of installing CinemaScope alongside stereo sound, which they did, and ran its first CinemaScope feature on August 1, 1954 with “The Robe” as its first American blockbuster screened at the Hamamatsu International. Despite being mostly an American film house, some films from other countries also joined in at occasions.

There’s not a lot of other information that I can find about the theater during its later years. After going through several different names and different policies, the original Shinei Theater closed on April 1, 1999 when it was relocated from its original location on 49 Asahi-cho to their current location on 100-5 Itayamachi, when they reopened the theater as the Cinema House Shinei.

Unfortunately, its relaunch as the Cinema House Shinei turned out to be one big hell of a mess. It relaunched the following day on April 2, 1999 as an adult movie house and has a more atmosphere feeling of a small hotel rather than a (not-so-normal) movie theater. The only appropriate thing about this is a lobby room that feels like a hotel, complete with a Panasonic TV, a rotating fan, a Seiko clock, and a water dispenser. There is also a parking garage located right next to it.

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