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SINGAPORE: Chinese Singaporeans may be speaking more Mandarin at home these days, but this has not discouraged Singapore filmmakers from capturing a very local sound – Chinese dialects – in some of their recent productions.
Art is often said to mirror life. But made-in-Singapore movies are not quite mirroring the changing trends in language use here.
Since the launch of the successful annual Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1979, dialects had all but disappeared from the mass media.
According to the last Population Census, 45 per cent of Chinese Singaporeans speak Mandarin at home in 2000, up from 30.1 per cent in 1990, while a matching decline was seen for those who speak dialects at home.
Yet Singapore filmmakers are including more Chinese dialects in their works. For instance, in "Singapore Gaga" - a critically acclaimed documentary by Tan Pin Pin - a tissue-seller sings her blues away in Hokkien.
"During the Singapore International Film Festival, I saw Hou Hsiao Hsien's 'Beiqing Chengshi' or 'City of Sadness', and that was the first time in my whole life that I heard Hokkien on the big screen.
"I tell you, if the chair didn't have a back, I would have fallen over. I just went, 'Oh my god, we can also make films about ourselves!'," said Tan.
For one filmmaker, who is especially popular with the heartlanders, dialects work for their expressiveness.
Jack Neo, director of movies such as "I Not Stupid" and "Money No Enough", said: "There are certain expressions in dialect that Mandarin words just can't replace. Like 'pek chek', there is no way you can use a Mandarin equivalent for that. This is actually a weapon – a weapon of communication."
Eric Khoo - the first Singapore filmmaker to compete for the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with "My Magic", a movie filmed in Tamil and a bit of Chinese dialect - said his next film, a biopic of famous cabaret dancer Rose Chan, will be made almost entirely in Cantonese.
Khoo, who is currently overseas, believes it is time to give dialects a freer rein, so long as it is right for the subject matter.
He said: "I think dialect is an important part of Singapore. If you want to be creative with your work you can slip into dialect, slip into Singlish and all that. It gives it that realness that locals would really enjoy. But to say you can only have a percentage of this and a percentage of that, it becomes a nightmare.
"I really don't think if we had ten dialect films a year in Singapore, then it's going to make Singaporeans speak more dialect. That just isn't the case."
But how much is too much dialect for a Singapore-made movie that is screened here?
When asked, the Media Development Authority's media content director, Amy Chua, said flexibility is given, depending on the context and usage.
Dialect films with artistic merit are allowed on a case-by-case basis for limited screening at film festivals or film society events.
But even while exercising flexibility, the media authority said efforts to promote Mandarin must be safeguarded or what has been achieved could be undone.
Still, not all in the film industry think the guidelines are too stringent.
"Perth", a tale about a disillusioned Singapore cabbie contained heavy use of Hokkien and Cantonese dialogue, expletives included. But it got past the censors unscathed.
Juan Foo, producer of "Perth", said: "I think they just wanted to know what were our motivations and were they justified. We were very thankful and we understood where they were coming from and they understood where we were coming from in terms of telling the story. So it's really about discussing it at a very early stage to understand what works and what doesn't."
At the end of the day, perhaps it is still box-office takings which will give the clearest message on what works and what doesn't.
- CNA/so
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