Big Fishda
Sunday, May 2nd, 2004In the fantastical movie Big Fish, something smelled fishy in one of the flashback scenes. In what appeared to be a show for Chinese Communist soldiers in a huge auditorium, the dialogue between a ventriloquist and his dummy puppet was done entirely in Tagalog. Now, the performer was obviously Chinese for he was also donned in soldier garb. In a case of cinematic code-switching, the host spoke in Cantonese as he had the ventriloquist and his prop hauled off the stage. Here’s what I could catch of the dialogue:
Puppet:
‘Sus, kanina pa ako salita nang salita dito.
Pagod na pagod na ako.
Ikaw?
Wala ka bang sasabihin?
Tsina-tsansingan ako?
Akala mo, inip na inip na ako.
Pinapawisan…
Ventriloquist:
Ako, basang-basa sa pawis mo…
Puppet:
Hahahahaha!
Akala mo pawis iyan?
Ihi ko iyan.
Now they may have been kicked offstage due to a dialect unapproved by the Party, but I think it is due more to the content of the performance.
PS: According to the credits, the actor who played the ventriloquist is named Metz Duites.
Update: This is even more babylonic than I thought. According to this, the scene takes place in North Korea. While the host speaks Korean (ok, my bad), Ewan McGregor and the Siamese twins speak in Cantonese.