《伴我行》(Be With Me)為新加坡導演邱金海(Eric Khoo)二○○五年的作品,九十三分鐘長的電影中只有不到五分鐘的對白,且對話中主要是主角Theresa用英語與外界溝通,間以些許另兩名角色,老父與擔任社工的兒子,的福建語對話。數得上的華語對白不到三句,甚至比福建話還少。對比於華語及方言對白的稀少,角色之一的警衛書寫的情書與社工翻譯的Theresa的回憶錄皆是以華文寫成,且在電影當中成為重要但無聲的角色。警衛翻查字典寫成的情書即是此角色在電影當中欲完成的任務,而Theresa的回憶錄正是幫助老父走出喪妻之痛的關鍵之物。本文將取道史書美對華語語系的主張來討論這部電影,探究將華語語系文學的概念擴大與引申來解讀文字媒介之外的華語語系文化生產時所面臨的挑戰。在華語語系文學包容多音性與多字性的前提下,《伴我行》做為特殊個案,顯示出雖然華語語系新加坡文學在理論上包容了英文與華文的混雜使用,但一部英語對白多過於華語與方言的電影,是否仍被納入華語語系概念下討論?本文主張仍將本片視作華語語系電影,角色被刻意突顯出無聲的嘴即藉由華語語系提供的平臺與其他地區的華語語系文化生產互文閱讀。
Singaporean director Eric Khoo's Be With Me (2005) is a 93-minute film with dialogues less than 5 minutes in total. The majority of the conversation is done by the character Theresa, who talks in English. There are also Hokkien dialogues made by other characters, such as the social worker and his old father as well as the fat security guard. Contrasted with the Mandarin dialogues that are far less than the conversation in dialect, Chinese scripts are voiceless but determinative in this film. The Chinese love letter that the security guard eventually completes is viewed as the mission he attempts to fulfill. The Chinese translation of Theresa's memoir helps the old father overcome the pain of losing his wife. In light of Shu-mei Shih's proposition of Sinophone studies, this essay will tackle the problem of applying the idea of Sinophone literature to the verbal text by taking Be with Me as an example. On the premise that Sinophone literature is polyphonic and polyscriptic, Singaporean Sinophone literature incurs no doubt for its hybridized use of Chinese, Singlish and other dialects in written texts. However, as a special case, Be with Me calls into a question whether Sinophone cinema should include a film in which Anglophone exceeds Sinophone. This essay regards Be with Me as Sinophone cinema so that the trope of the silenced mouth in this film can be intertexualized with other Sinophone texts outside Singapore through the platform of Sinophone studies.