Dear You free screenings for SPH Media’s Chinese Media Group readers, listeners from July 2 to 5

SINGAPORE – Moviegoers who are keen to watch the popular Chinese film Dear You in its original Teochew dialect may now be able to watch it for free.

SPH Media’s Chinese Media Group (CMG) will host four free screenings from July 2 to 5 at Golden Village (GV) cinemas in Yishun, Tampines and VivoCity.

Eligible readers of Chinese-language news outlets Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily News and listeners of radio stations 96.3 Hao FM and UFM100.3 can visit Zaobao’s website or its app to reserve their tickets from 10am on June 27.

CMG had sought the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) approval to organise the screenings to reward loyal subscribers, readers, listeners and seniors, SPH Media said in a media release on June 26.

The film will be screened at GV Yishun and Tampines on July 2 and 3 respectively, and at GV VivoCity on July 4 and 5. The screenings are part of CMG’s A Movie Date with Ah Gong Ah Ma initiative, which is sponsored by DBS/POSB and supported by Clover Films, the distributor of Dear You.

CMG’s editor-in-chief Lee Huay Leng said the group had been keen to apply for the screenings after learning in mid-May how popular the film was in China.

“The theme of journeying to Nanyang is familiar to many Chinese families in Singapore, as many recollect stories of their grandparents making that journey,” she said. “It is a familiar subject, yet one that touches everyone differently. That is what makes a work of art especially compelling.

“In the past, for the needs of nation-building, the dialects that our grandparents were most comfortable communicating in gradually gave way. Our society today is very different. We hope to allow artistic works to be experienced in their original language and form, and to give our grandparents a good reason to go to the movies.”

DBS Singapore’s country head Lim Him Chuan said the company’s sponsorship of the film was its way of “celebrating the resilience, heart and shared stories of the people we are privileged to serve every single day”.

Dear You, a migration-themed drama which has dominated China’s box office, follows a man who travels to Thailand in search of his long-lost grandfather.

There, he discovers a secret hidden in the remittance letters – commonly sent by Chinese migrants who moved south – that his grandfather mailed home to his grandmother.

The decision earlier in June to use the Mandarin-dubbed version of the film for its general release in Singapore had sparked public discussion over access to dialect films. An IMDA spokesperson had said on June 16 that the Teochew version of the film would still be screened at the premiere, and made available for subsequent festival and niche screenings.

The film opened in Singapore on June 18.

GV initially had eight sessions of Dear You in Teochew screened between June 18 and 21. It later added another eight sessions, to be screened from June 25 to 29. Tickets to the 16 public screenings of the film in Teochew sold out within two hours.

Fifty more Teochew sessions were also given the green light on June 25, with 40 to be screened at five GV cinemas and 10 to be special community screenings.