SINGAPORE – Cinema operator Golden Village (GV) is hoping to increase Teochew screenings of the Chinese movie Dear You in the next few weeks.
It has submitted a request to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) for approval for up to 50 more such sessions, GV said in a statement on June 22.
This is on top of 16 public screenings of the film in Teochew, tickets to which are sold out.
GV added that it is hoping to make the additional screenings available outside of GV VivoCity, so that audiences in suburban locations can watch the film as well.
The original Teochew version of Dear You is currently being screened at GVMax in VivoCity, a cinema hall that houses 602 seats, according to the mall’s official website.
The cinema operator’s statement follows an announcement by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), which said it is open to facilitating and supporting further Teochew screenings of the film should the distributor apply for them.
Said Lim Teck, managing director of Clover Films, a co-distributor of Dear You in Singapore: “From the outset, our intention has been to make Dear You in Teochew available as widely as possible in Singapore and we have been working closely with IMDA since late May towards this objective.”
Lim added that the distributor looks forward to collaborating with IMDA on Teochew screenings of Dear You as well as on future titles, “so that we can continue bringing quality films in their original languages to audiences in Singapore”.
MDDI’s statement on June 22 also said IMDA will take a more flexible approach in considering applications for dialect films to be more freely screened in cinemas.
This comes after IMDA on June 16 said the movie, which was filmed almost entirely in Teochew, would be screened in its Mandarin-dubbed version for general release in Singapore.
IMDA had said the decision was made to support the bilingual policy, which aims to promote Mandarin as the main language among Chinese Singaporeans.
GV screened eight sessions of Dear You in Teochew between June 18 and 21. Tickets were sold out within two hours of their launch on June 16.
The cinema operator on June 19 announced eight additional screenings of the movie in its original Teochew dialect between June 25 and 29.
Tickets for all eight screenings went on sale at 3pm on June 22 and were sold out within 1½ hours of their launch.
GV told The Straits Times on June 20 that it had worked with the film’s distributor, Clover Films, to put in a request with IMDA for the additional screenings.
ST has contacted IMDA for more information on GV’s latest request.
