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Vivienne Chow

Trend dashes hopes of young learning English from movies

Demand for Cantonese-dubbed versions of English-language films is on the rise, dealing a blow to a government push for young people to pick up English from  daily life.

Recent box-office records showed that films aimed at families and children scored much better if a dubbed Cantonese version was released at the same time.

An education expert said English-language movies and TV shows were a big help to children in picking up the language in their earliest years and a lack of exposure could seriously limit their ability.

Although Hong Kong people were used to listening to various languages, Cantonese was always a preference, said Rigo Jesu, managing director of Intercontinental, which pioneered the  dubbing of  movies into Cantonese.

'Since we first did Toy Story, there's been a gradual trend of [dubbed Cantonese versions] taking up the majority of the revenue,' Mr Jesu said.

'A dubbed Cantonese version could take as much as 75 per cent of the total box office receipts of a film.'

Golden Scene managing director Winnie Tsang agreed having a dubbed Cantonese version could help boost the box office, even for Japanese films, which usually had both Chinese and English subtitles.

The dramatic growth in films suitable for children and families could be one of the reasons for the trend, said Ms Tsang. In 2000, the Television Entertainment Licensing Authority classified 196 entries   as category I. The number soared to 554 last year.

'Children have much less patience to read subtitles,' said Ms Tsang. 'Plus, having a local celebrity doing the dubbing gives the movie another selling point.'

As the Cantonese track could also be included in the release of a film's DVD, it gave distributors more flexibility.

Psychologist Ada Yam Chun-wa said watching English-language movies and programmes, although not the only option for learning English, would  help children's language development.

'Zero to six years old is the critical period for children to learn a language. If a child is surrounded by English-language media, there's certainly an advantage in picking up English,' said Ms Yam,  who is a specialist in children's language and psychological training at the Whole Person Development Institute. 'At English-language play groups, many parents are too anxious about their children not being able to understand and try to explain to their children in Cantonese.

'But that's wrong because children can pick up the language much quicker than any adults.'

In an effort to help viewers pick up English, in 2002 English subtitles became compulsory for certain programmes aired on  English-language channels, such as news and dramas aimed at young people.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong International Film Festival this year doubled the number of films containing Chinese electronic subtitles to attract more patrons.

The festival's programme manager, Beatrice Chan, said that more than 40 screenings were sold out in the first week of the festival, compared with about 30 for the whole festival last year.

'We have had a much bigger young crowd this year. The majority of them were university students and some were secondary school students,' Ms Chan said.  'Having Chinese subtitles also helped marketing the event among the Chinese-language media, some of which would collaborate only if the films had Chinese subtitles.'



Boom in Cantonese dubbing of films not in government's script