Cinemagoers in Singapore are hungry for more screenings of Dear You in Teochew dialogue, it appears.
Nearly 14,000 tickets from 40 additional screenings were snapped up in three hours after they went on sale on Sunday (June 29) afternoon, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
The ticket sales drew long queues at Golden Village at Vivocity that day.
AsiaOne’s checks on Tuesday showed that there are no tickets left for the Teochew screenings of the movie.
Local film distributor Clover Films and cinema operator Golden Village have since applied for another 100 screenings of the film to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Chinese daily reported.
Videos shared online show queues snaking across the cinema lobby, starting from the ticket booth to outside of the cinema’s premises.
Although the movie screenings with Teochew dialogue were originally meant to run from June 18 to 21, there has been several rounds of additional screenings due to overwhelming demand.
This comes after public pushback for the film to be screened in the dialect, instead of its Mandarin-dubbed version meant for commercial release, on account of the Government’s bilingual policy.
IMDA said on June 22 that it welcomed the “broader conversation” prompted by the movie around Chinese dialects and cultural identity in Singapore.
The regulator emphasized the national importance of promoting Mandarin as an official language, but also acknowledged the heritage value of dialects and the efforts of various communities in keeping dialects alive.
“We remain open to facilitating and supporting further Teochew screenings should the distributor wish to apply for them, in response to audience interest,” IMDA said.
“We will continue to engage industry and community stakeholders, and keep our approach under review, to support the appreciation and use of dialects in Singapore.”
Local filmmakers, ranging from Jack Neo to Boo Junfeng, have also lobbied for the film to be screened in Teochew here. In their letter published on the Straits Times, Eric Khoo and Neo asked: “Why should cinemas continue to bear the brunt of this outdated policy?”
Mandarin-dubbed versions of the film are still widely available in Singapore, with AsiaOne counting at least 80 showtimes across Shaw and Golden Village theatres across the country.
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daoen.wong@asiaone.com
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