I saw this in a theater in Manila. After waiting far too long as the only foreigner in a giant snaking line, I got to the ticket gate and discovered there was assigned seating. This was why the line moved so slowly – each moviegoer weighed their options. I just picked something near the back – I was only looking to kill a couple hours, and didn’t really care. I entered the theater only to realize that the seating diagram was backwards – I’d unknowingly picked a seat right at the front of the theater… this wouldn’t do. So, I did what any good American would – attempted to fix the situation. I got back to the ticket office, explained the problem, and was confronted with confusion – they had no process to fix a seat. “no problem”, I offered, “just sell me another ticket”. I was willing to blow another $5 due to my stupidity. But, they wouldn’t have that… they had to figure something out. After much discussion, and a visit from the manager, I had a new ticket. Wonderful.

So, I got to my seat in the back of the theater, and was settling in… when someone motioned that I was in their seat. No, I said, my seat is “4D”, see? An usher came over. “Oh”, he said, “You’re in 4D on the other side”. Seriously? There were two seats in the theater designated 4D? (and presumably two of every other seat). There are lots of letters and numbers… they couldn’t pick unique combinations for every seat? Oh well, I finally made it to the other 4D… And watched the movie while the person in front of me spent the whole time texting on their phone. This whole fiasco was more entertaining than the actual movie – I can’t remember any of it… but I do remember the absurdity of finding my seat. Maybe they should make a movie about that instead.