At first glance, the Singaporean film industry in 2024 was not much different to previous years. However, take a closer look and there are some areas of interest. For example, several veteran filmmakers from the late 1990s to the 2000s, when the industry rejuvenated itself, released new titles in various genres.
Eric Khoo, who started the local revival rolling with Mee Pok Man (1995) and 12 Storeys (1997), gave us Spirit World, a well-meaning fantasy road movie starring the legendary Catherine Deneuve and Japanese screen idol Takenouchi Yutaka. It was a co-production between Singapore, Japan and France which shows an aging filmmaker coming to grasp with mortality. Eric’s son Edward Khoo is credited as the screenwriter, and the production lays the foundations for a renewal of vision.
From around the same time, when the revival hit its stride with Khoo’s 12 Storeys, then-film graduate Lim Suat Yen got together with some comrades-in-arms to produce The Road Less Travelled (1997). That was a coming-of-age film about intergenerational conflicts and friendships set in the rarefied world of Singaporean Chinese campus folk music – xin yao, which was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. The film did not find its target audience, which in a way, set in place the tussle for acceptance between Singaporean filmmakers and local audiences that haunts Singaporean films to this day.
Almost 30 years later, Lim returned with The Chosen One, a popular blend of supernatural horror and comedy, with a dash of romance, featuring actors from Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Perhaps the most surprising comeback of 2024 is that of Singapore’s renowned theatre director, Ong Keng Seng. Back in 1996, Ong directed one of the first local hits, Army Daze. His The House of Janus screened in the Undercurrent section of the Singapore International Film Festival.
Army Daze was a feature film version of a beloved theatre play by Michael Chiang revolving around the shenanigans of some new recruits undertaking their National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces. Released on the heels of Eric Khoo’s critically acclaimed Mee Pok Man, this wholly commercial entity resonated with audiences at the time. It was one of the first Singaporean films to make a profit at the box office, signaling a hopeful future for the industry.
2024 saw the continuation of two of Jack Neo’s most beloved franchises, Money No Enough and I Not Stupid, both of which saw third installments. Money No Enough (1998) is particularly significant for Neo. He was already one of the most popular personalities on local television throughout the 1980s and 1990s with his own weekly primetime comedy show when he played one of the key roles in the film. The director of the movie is Tay Teck Lock, a veteran television director, while Neo wrote and instigated the whole production.
This endeavour, coupled with his experience acting in the very different 12 Storeys, kindled his interest in making movies. To date, he is still the only working local filmmaker to consistently make a profit from his movies. Neo’s brand of broad comedy and syrupy melodrama, as well as his penchant for pulled-from-the-headlines topical filmmaking, seems to be the ingredients for box office success. Barring some of the more artful efforts, most local commercial movies follow this template. 2024 alone brings us the likes of Fat Hope, King of Hawkers, Good Goodbye, Let’s Get Rich and yes, Lim Suat Yen’s The Chosen One.
While 2024 was a chance to reminisce about the past, newer filmmaking voices showed that co-productions are the way forward to the future. But that isn’t really a new idea.
Co-productions have been a contributing factor to many of Singapore’s releases for the past five years or so. These films are usually arthouse movies made by younger directors.
Examples are Yeo Siew Hua’s A Land Imagined (2018), He Shuming’s Ajooma (2022), Nelson Yeo’s Dreaming and Dying (2023), Nicole Midori Woodford’s Last Shadow at First Light (2023), and Jow Zhi Wei’s Tomorrow Is a Long Time (2023). These films flourished in film festivals, and sometimes lit up the dim corners of streaming platforms. Overall, they added some much-desired variety to Singaporean cinema. In much the same vein, 2024 saw the release of Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes, Chiang Wei Liang and You Qiao Yin’s Mongrel, and Nelicia Low’s Pierce and Daniel Hui’s Small Hours of the Night.
Small Hours of the Night is Hui’s fourth feature film. It explores a scandal in which the brother of the infamous armed activist Tan Chay Wa was accused of treason, and given a prison sentence for his attempts at reciting a revolutionary poem. The film delves into how Tan Chay Wa’s brother was scrutinised for trying to carry out his brother’s last wish, which was to have the poem inscribed on his grave as a mark of respect. His attempt was deemed illegal, and detrimental to national security.
Ostensibly a documentary, Hui’s film is actually anything but that. Eschewing conventional documentary forms, the film adeptly frames the story through the interactions of an interrogator and a woman. Monologues and conversations are interspersed with moments of striking poetic beauty lensed in 16mm. The film is Hui’s best work to date, and shows the growth of a true Singaporean artist. It was screened at film festivals in Rotterdam, Taipei. London, and New York, but was denied permission by the Singaporean authorities to be released as it was deemed prejudicial to the national interest. The song remains the same.
Warren Sin