zi lang zi bua.. gum qing buay shua

I went to see my first Singapore local movie <881> last night. It was an amazing experience.

For those who are not in Singapore, 881 is the first musical movie from Singapore which tells a story about the Papaya Sisters, two childhood friends who grew up mesmerised by the glitter and glamour of getai (歌台).

What's getai then? It's like what we called 孟蘭盛會 in Hong Kong, where people set up song stages in public areas during the Hungry Ghost Festival in the 7th lunar month. The performance is both for the human and the spirits. But unlike Hong Kong, Singaporeans perform in a more modern way while they wear very loud and glittery clothings. While in HK, da xi (大戲) is the main type of performance. Oh.. one more special thing is that in Hong Kong, during the performance, the first row of seats will be 'reserved' for the spirits so no human is allowed to sit there. Check out here for more information on getai.

I had some hard times watching the movie since a major part of the conversations were in Hokkien. So I had to read the subtitle but even if you don't speak Hokkien, you should know how fast can one speak in Hokkien!! Basically sometimes I couldn't follow the subtitle!!

There were lots of beautiful songs in the movie! And again they were in Hokkien as well! I think I heard most of them before (at least the melody). I LOVE those songs! But this time I got the chances to read the lyrics and understand the meaning behind the songs. I noticed that most of the songs are about sad stories, sad love stories, sad family stories... etc. I guess it has something to do with the Chinese culture.

You may wonder what are those Hokkien pingyin stand for in the title of this blog entry, put them in Chinese charaters, they will be "一人一半.. 感情不散". Which is one of the theme songs of the movie. It is actually an old Hokkien song, during the movie, you can hear Auntie Ling (Liu Ling Ling, who is actually a getai singer before) sings beautifully and you will be deeply touched by her voice. I actually like her the most in this movie.

This is Liu Ling Ling's version in the movie:




And there is also another version in Mandarin, performed by 伍家輝. I think more people prefer this version because they can understand the lyrics and the lyrics are sooo nice! To me, this song isn't just talk about love between a couple, it also talks about love between everyone. But I guess I'll leave it for you to taste it in your own way.

《一人一半》演唱：伍家輝
改編詞:小寒 曲:伍家輝

一人一半 感情不散
一人一素故 感情才會久
時光累積 安靜的淚滴
一心去追 愛那麼可貴

這樣的人 這樣地等
無非是等個回應眼神
為愛翻滾 不計傷痕
甘心為你一生都浮沉

這樣的人 別笑我蠢
傻傻的 心痛也不覺疼
就算天冷 就算殘忍
等你想起這沒用的人

一人一半 感情不散
已經找到愛 為何要離開

時光累計 安靜的淚滴
一心去追 愛那麼可貴

一人一半 感情不散
已經找到愛 為何要離開
已經找到愛 為何先離開