‘Dear You’ official logo. (Wikimedia)
This move was taken in response to an overwhelming surge in demand following the previously sold-out tickets for the initial run from June 18 to 21. More attention was drawn to the issue as the Singaporean public scrutinised the local government’s initial plan to “uphold Singapore’s longstanding bilingual policy” by dubbing the production in Mandarin.
For context, Dear You, a cinematic masterpiece directed and co-written by Lan Hongchun, follows a grandson in the present day searching for his long-lost grandfather in Thailand, while parallelly tracing the journey of a 1940s newlywed who leaves wartime China for Southeast Asia to find work and support his family.
As Dear You was filmed primarily in the Chinese dialect of Teochew, Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) had essentially restricted the feature’s public release to the Mandarin-dubbed version. Reportedly, local filmmakers and moviegoers critiqued the restriction, arguing it blunted the film’s authenticity and its connection to cultural identity
Following intense public feedback, both authorities announced in a media statement on June 22 that they would take a “more flexible approach” in evaluating cinema applications for Chinese dialect films.
The subsequent batch of tickets will grant access to the original Teochew version, with the IMDA recently supporting eight more screenings. “We remain open to facilitating and supporting further Teochew screenings should the distributor wish to apply for them, in response to audience interest,” the statement read.
Produced on a modest budget of just 14 million Chinese yuan (2 million US dollar), Dear You has become one of China’s biggest screen successes this year, grossing over 1.8 billion Chinese yuan (255 million US dollar).
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