My Memories of the Video Vat

I remember the first time my dad took me to the "Video Vat", the video rental store along Boni Avenue. The place was packed with betamax cassette tapes stuffed in their pigeon holes all over the walls and scribbled on the front end of each were their titles. John (my dad) would take out one and slide over the cover to reveal significant details of the movie such as who's starring in it and who directed it.

Why did I remember this? Well, was watching AXN on cable and they were showing a trailer of this show starring 'academy award winning actor Timothy Hutton'. I don't know of any movies by this Timothy Hutton but his name sounded so familiar. I tried to recall where I had come across his name and surprisingly came to this memory of my first time in a rental store. Okay so maybe not exactly my first time, I think John got porn that time but in subsequent trips to the Video Vat, I was scanning the movie details when I chanced upon the name Timothy Hutton. I asked my dad who he was and he took a look at the tape and rented it out. Supposedly this guy is a good actor, but who is he?

Of course I googled him, and clicked on the rottentomatoes site. Turns out this Timothy Hutton guy (we'll refer to him as Tim from now on) has a tomatometer result of 40%. What the heck does that mean, I have no idea and was so lazy to check out how it works. Tim got a best supporting actor award for Ordinary People, which I have not heard of and supposedly worked alongside Johnny Depp in Secret Window. That pretty much ended my curiosity about Tim. Who cares?

So going back to the Video Vat, this is my perfect example of the corner mom&pop outfit which was gobbled up by the times. My dad being the movie fanatic (not only porn, mind you), he would take the trip to this place every two days and take out 3 movies at a time. He was one of many movie buffs who frequent the place and got to know the owner, the clerk, the other members and was privy to the secret viewing room out back where he checked out the owner's private stash or originals. In time, I became a member because I was the son of John, membership included kin, conveniently.

My membership being established, I too went to the place and took out episodes of that NBA roundup, Transformers, Voltes Five and so on. On some occasions, when the clerk was feeling a bit jolly, he would let me take out some of his recommended new releases for my dad and even that occasional porn though I never got to watch it anyway because the betamax machine was inconveniently located in the living room. Dare I say it, that place felt like a second home for John and I. (me?)

Around the time VHS took over the beta format, Video Vat changed ownership and moved to another location. It got a little inconvenient for a time but we still trooped there nonetheless. Turns out the new owner was one of the members and knew my dad well enough to have been invited to our house for some drinks. I recall that my dad also went to his house, me in tow to return some overdue movies. This guy's house smelled of spilt orange juice and I couldn't wait to get out of there and back to the comforting smell of cigarettes in my dad's Mitsubishi-Dodge Colt. The new owner inherited the old clerk, now pot-bellied and suddenly middle aged. I still spotted the regulars and the new layout of the shop was quite convenient, with 2 televisions plus a rewinder which meant that you could return the tapes unrewound. (A very big deal back then)

The entry of VCD's was the beginning of the end for the Video Vat. Piracy was in the early stages (Though I'm sure Video Vat and other rental stores didn't necessarily purchase the real thing, either) and they couldn't keep up with the times, I reckon. A few years into this revolutionary technology and the Video Vat went into history as a memory of the good old days of betamax and VHS. My dad and I once bumped into the owner at our regular barber shop and he had suddenly turned old and balding. The costs of buying up new VCD's, rent and the bigger rental chains had proved too much and he had to sell off the business. That was a sad day, indeed.

Nowadays, when I go to stalls selling pirated DVD's I'd feel amazed at how much technology has pretty much outdated the whole concept of the Video Vat. Though I frequent that one DVD stall and we know each other by face, the cozy atmosphere and the almost familial relationship is just not there. Gone are the index cards, the private viewing room, the overwhelming feel of pigeon holes and calling the clerk and owner "tito". We still have that betamax and VHS machine, gathering dust somewhere at my parent's house. Someday when these become objects of antiquity, I probably won't have the heart to sell them off together with all my memories of the Video Vat.