From the outside, the abandoned Chinese cinema is so unassuming you might accidentally walk past it. In the middle of a Chinatown alley, Harbour City Cinema has sat empty for 15 years. But ascending the stairs into the venue’s foyer is like tumbling up a fuzzy red rabbit hole – into a foyer serving natty wines and dumplings, lined with old portraits and film posters, and past that into the cinema itself: now a nightclub, packed wall to wall with a heaving crowd, dancing up an amphitheatre facing the stage.
The mood is vibrant, communal and electric; the music is loud; the outfits incredible. It didn’t always look like this inside.
