Bugis Street: The Movie

Bugis Street: The Movieis a lively drama focusing on the lives of trans-sexuals who inhabit the aptly-named Sin Sin hotel in Singapore's infamous red-light district. Set during the early 1970s, the film is essentially an excuse to take a peek at some flamboyant lifestyles. But it's also an unusual rites-of-passage movie about an Annie-style maid who grows from girl to woman during her tenure at the hotel. The film starts with the young maid Lian (Heaven and Earth's Hiep Thi Le) arriving at the downbeat hotel during an argument between a glamorous prostitute and a sailor-boy client. Lian is shocked to discover that the glamorous hooker is, in fact, a man - as are all the other "working girls" who inhabit the hotel. Hong Kong director Yonfan (Yang Fan) gives us visual and verbal snippets of the girls' lives, including some rough-house, sometimes violent, sex scenes. The film's art-house aspirations are displayed by the inclusion of some full-frontal male nudity - something that would never make it past the Singaporean censors if it were an exploitation film. Bugis Street is a provocative and entertaining piece of work. Furthermore, considering the moral puritanism of the city state's leaders, it's a highly unusual choice to act as a flagship for Singaporean cinema.