"When Hainan Meets Teochew” is the third feature length film from Singaporean director Han Yew Kwang featuring two leads who are neither famous nor good-looking.

Synopsis:
When a bra falls on Teochew, he immediately wins the lottery. Meanwhile, Hainan-boy, whom the bra belongs to begins an earnest search for her lost bra. Her trails leads her to the home of Teochew, where a struggle leads to Teochew being booted out of his rented home. Feeling guilty, Hainan-boy invites Teochew to move in with her. Hainanese men are said to make the best husbands, while Teochew wives are said to be the prettiest. A potential romance sparks between the two. They seem like a perfect match – as one is a manly Hainanese and the other is a womanly Teochew. However, the Hainanese is a woman, while the Teochew is a man. Can the two of them still be together?

Official website with trailers, teasers and music video for the film: http://18gpictures.com/whmt/


Photo shows the female lead (Lee Chau Min) - Hainan (left) and Male lead (Tan Hong Chye) - Teochew (right)

This film was showcast during December last year. I went to watch this film not just because of its english combined with dialect film title but i feel that this film offers a romantic comedy film that is opposing from the norm that most of us get to watch in our everyday life. As most of us would expect, the prerequisites for a romantic comedy film will have main leads and casts like Jennifer Aniston and Auston Kutcher who are young, good-looking, sexy and swoon worthy, with the story of their potential romance start out by a beautiful coincidence. However, this film offers a direct opposite testing viewers perceptive acceptance where both leads are average looking, middle age and not any glamorous or famous celebrities that any of us would have known. Despite having a man-woman romance blossom at its core; by having a manly woman and a womanly man challenge the common or normal heterosexual relationship that we experience in our everyday social life. In addition, the film evolve with universal themes of acceptance and love which are brilliantly featured by the main leads and casts about the struggles of the minority in society, where they are regard as social/gender non-conformist and experiences social sanctions. However, i do not feel that the main leads are social or gender non-conformist, just because of the fact that Hainan being physiologically woman adopting masculine behaviours and Teochew being physiologically man adopting feminine behaviours. I feel that they are still conforming with the 2 sex binary gender system with each of them adopting the various acceptable feminine and masculine behaviours, despite their physiological appearance or biological sex. To me i feel that what was important was how these unconventional main leads actually help our conservative society to explore the idea of a heterosexual relationship, gender roles and practices, companionship and romance from our established norms.

From the film, social sanctioning (by their family members, working colleagues and members of the public) can be seen especially on Teochew where he has to continuously seek the approval and acceptance of a stoically silent father to accept him for who he is, coupled with that inner voice of guilt to the ghost of his brother Guang (Alaric Tay) urging him constantly to be a man through adopting masculine behaviours. While on ther other hand, Hainan having to bear the brunt of jibes from her siblings (played by the director himself, and Sharon Loh, cinematographer for Boo Junfeng’s Sandcastle) and pressures from a typical mom (Catherine Sng) based on Chinese culture, tradition and values to have someone (a man) look after her. As women are often being viewed to be vulnerable and the need for care and protection by the men. Hence, from the music video, you could see a segment where Teochew was dressed in male clothing and wearing a wig of a man's haircut to portrary as Hainan's boyfriend. Thus from these social sanction events we could clearly see reemphasise and reinforcement of the acceptable social expectations on gender roles and practices in a heterosexual relationship as well as in companionship, marriage and family formation. The sight of a manly woman and a feminine man, homosexual relationship or ugly couples on media are considered a form of disgust. However, this film spells out alternative possibility of romantic love and companionship covering homosexuality relationship between Hainan and her ex-girlfriend played by (Yeo Yann Yann from 881).

Photo shows the female lead (Lee Chau Min) - Hainan and her ex-girlfriend (Yeo Yann Yann) - MeiHui

The titular duo also challenge the conventional dual sexuality system of heterosexuality and homosexuality by being bisexual (maybe more commonly accepted now, but i guess most people still do not regard themselves as bisexual). Thus it spells the appreciation that gender and sexuality is highly fluid, not necessary fixed. Most importantly, breaking the stereotype of being a feminine man would be a gay and masculine woman would be a lesbian.

With the limited perception of gender and sexuality of the society, we apply derived rules of interaction and behaviour during our socialisation process and daily life. The film also addresses the taboo of woman's brassiere for a male when they happen to spot with one, regardless of what he's doing with it, was used as the plot that started the romance story. With the woman's brassiere, being a undergarment uniquely connected to the female anatomy and gender specific dressing, man who are found wearing them are often called cross-dressers or sometimes transexual or even purverts.

This quirky romance-comedy film not only brought heartland laughters via the intrinsic details of the Singaporean life but also with the challenge of the stereotypical norms of a romance comedy film, by not having the "ideal or perfect looking" main leads as well as gender norms in a heterosexual relationship and companionship. So, this film is more than just about love and acceptance.