Five oddball characters endure the rigours of army training and find real friendship in Army Daze, a nutty comedy adapted from a popular play by Singaporean Michael Chiang.
There's Krishna, a character straight out of a Bollywood musical;
Kenny, a flamboyant homosexual who wouldn't be out of place in Bugis Street; Johari, a big fat slob with wraparound sunglasses and a permanent Walkman; Teo, a Hokkien-speaking working-class punk (nicknamed "Ah Beng," local slang for a flashy character); and the film's narrator and central character, Malcolm, a mother-dominated bore who's determined to do his best for his country.
There's no real plot, and the only story development is Krishna's girlfriend flirting with an officer while Krishna is in hospital. However, the characters genuinely grow on you, and the jokes - from slapstick humour to linguistic tropes - are often very funny, especially if you know Singapore.
Directed by theatre director Ong Keng-sen, Army Dazeis in many ways the ultimate Singaporean movie.
It focuses on a local phenomenon - all men aged 18 are still required to do two year's national service ("NS") - and makes funny play with the island's highly distinctive lingual soup, a mixture of the Hokkien dialect and Singaporean English ("Singlish"), the latter rendered into standard English by subtitles.
Made on a budget of US$700,000, the movie grossed US$1.6 million on a 42-day run in Singapore alone, kick-starting the local industry's commercial renaissance.
Derek Elley