Japan's 'Cardboard theater' gives you a personal cinema

Japan is known for its weird trends that don't always make sense to the rest of the world, but this latest one might be a winner: the Cardboard Theater.

The set-up, designed to deliver a private, somewhat immersive movie-watching experience, consists of a large cardboard box and a tablet or smartphone. That's all. It might not sound very technical, but it works well enough for a number of Japanese movie lovers who are using the set-up to watch their favorite films.

By cutting a display hole on the bottom of the box and a neck hole on its side, you suddenly have a private cinema of sorts that cuts out all light and ambient sound from the outside world.

Investigating the trend online, it's unclear when the first one was created and shared, but there are examples dating back to 2013.