Chinese movie Dear You will receive an additional 70 screenings from in its original Teochew-language version from July 3 to 12 following overwhelming public demand.
Golden Village (GV) and local movie distributor Clover Films will screen the Teochew-language versions across nine cinemas across the country: GV VivoCity, GV Yishun, GV Bishan, GV Tampines, GV Jurong Point, GV Bugis+, GV Cineleisure, Shaw Lido and Shaw Jem, reported The Straits Times on Wednesday (July 1).
This comes a few days after 14,000 tickets were snapped up in under three hours for an additional 40 screenings of the Teochew-language version on Monday.
Tickets went on sale at 12pm on Thursday (July 2) at all GV and Shaw box offices and their respective websites.
When AsiaOne visited the GV website on 12.49pm then, the estimated wait time was indicated to be more than three hours.
In order to bring the film to more seniors, GV and Clover Films also said that they will partner with grassroots and community organisations to host 30 additional screenings, reported CNA.
“The enthusiastic response to the Teochew-language screenings of Dear You has been truly heartening,” Clover Films managing director Lim Teck was quoted as saying.
“We hope the film continues to spark conversations across generations and encourages more people to embrace and preserve our culture.”
Dear You, which became a box-office hit in mainland China, is a drama that follows a man who travels to Thailand to search for his lost-long grandfather.
The film’s limited Teochew-language screenings have sparked public pushback for the film to be screened in its original dialect for its commercial release, instead of its Mandarin-dubbed version, 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.
“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.”
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