Made in Singapore

The film which went no other film has gone before in the history of Singaporean cinema, and winning the Caméra d'Or at the 2013 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the award which awards the best debut feature film by a film director. The film that instantly made the Singapore-born and British-based director Anthony Chen a household name overnight.

The film is actually based on the director's childhood memories of having a domestic maid in the 90s, but seen through a Filipino domestic maid working in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and her dynamics with her Singaporean employers and their son. And the film title is actually a nod to his childhood domestic helper's home town.

Anyone who grew up during the boom years in Singapore in that period of time would have likely have a domestic helper especially if the family is of the middle-class range, where the maids would tend to come from either Indonesia or the Philippines in those times. Everything that has been depicted about life in 90s Singapore is right down to the wire in this film, even the apartment blocks.

Well, maybe except for the live chicken. Still, the dynamics between the maid and the boy and how he reacted when she was flying back home as the family could no longer afford paying her salary, anyone who grew up with a domestic maid may or may not feel the same way. In a way it is like seeing flashes of my childhood growing up in the 90s all over again as well.

Or the title in English is 'Money No Enough', released just the year after the Asian financial crisis hit here in Singapore, a look at three friends and how their lives had been upended by the financial crisis.

The struggle is real, where the human element is also featured.

For a long time any student going through the Singapore education system will know a few things will definitely happen when they are in primary school, apart the major final-year exams in the sixth and final year of primary school. The streaming in primary four (or like fifth grade in the United States).

For a long time it does have its critics for how children can be classified that early in terms of academic smarts after the fourth year in primary school, even if it was to prepare for their final two years in primary school before deciding on the next stage of their educational system where a large majority do move on to the secondary school level. It is not done Hogwarts-style upon admission like in the world of Harry Potter, but students at the lower end of spectrum often get the worst of stereotypes, the dreaded EM3. EM1 is always the best of the best in the school, and those in EM2 are in the middle range (disclosure alert: I was being put in EM2 after primary four, which was what I had always expected back then and so it is still okay).

And this film which is also a comedy at the same time, deals with that. As in three male students in EM3 and the real-life struggles their parents also had to go through in spite of contrasting personal backgrounds. And the three boys' encounters with a schoolmate who was in EM1, which initially laid bare of the stereotypes that always went around, on the basis on where students are being put into. That is even the ending may be a little hopeful as well.

If anything, few years later, the streaming system was abolished altogether, removing the stigma that often associated with it. Whether the film had anything to do it, nobody knows. But at least it exposed the way how it used to be where the level of competitiveness has been ingrained already at a young age and how it can also bring out the worst in people sometimes, for someone like me who did went through the system, even if thankfully I did not went through like what the three boys did in the film (or maybe I had been spared the worst by being in EM2).

Or otherwise also known in its English equivalent, 'Liang Po Po The Movie'.

For a large part of the 90s, Monday nights is Mandarin comedy time on local primetime television where the popular show 'Comedy Night' is on with various skits but the highlight is always the last segment of the show. The main character can be either a housewife or a granny, and there will always be something happening with her and her friends. But each time it is actually being played by a male. Jack Neo may be known nowadays in the local entertainment scene for being more towards as a film director, but his claim to fame was being an actor and especially a television comedian to Singaporeans who remember him providing the laughs in the 90s along with his colleagues who are also well-versed in the comedy genre in the local entertainment scene. For someone like me who grew up watching 'Comedy Night' in the 90s and one of the television programmes I grew up always looking forward to each time it was on, the mannerisms of his television alter ego on 'Comedy Night' has been ingrained into local popular culture since.

The film version has Jack Neo reprising his famous role as the granny on 'Comedy Night' being Liang Po Po (or Grandma Liang) and including well-known faces who were also featured on 'Comedy Night' apart from familiar faces on local television. But unlike how it tends to happen on television with the skits, the film version had Liang Po Po leaving the old folks' home and eventually finding herself joining a triad gang...with all sorts of consequences.

The very first film to be dealt with what almost every able-bodied male Singaporean has to go through, the compulsory National Service which came into being since 1967, or otherwise always known as just NS here. Army life in Singapore has been depicted before, but it was mainly for the stage. That was until this came about.

Potential viewers would be interested to know that the war scene depicted in the film in down town Singapore has never happened before not since Singapore was also not spared of WWII. Rather, it is a realistic portrayal of the lives of young army recruits where there is always something someone who had gone through the national service can recognise. And this is coming from someone who has a father and a brother who had gone through NS themselves.

The sequel to 'Ah Boys to Men', continuing the events from the first film. But this time, it is more towards the dynamics between the army recruits whereas the first film focused a bit more of one of the protagonists. But still including what typical army recruits has to go through like the jungle training depicted at one time in the film.

Not many television drama series dealt with various periods in the history of Singapore has been done in the English language as it has always been the staple for Mandarin dramas and tending to do well in the viewership and ratings, and so this becomes a rare case loosely based on the pioneering batch of female policewomen in post-war Singapore, looking into a previously little known aspect of the history of the local police force.

As much as the female protagonists are fictional, what they went through was real in post-war Singapore. Throughout the entire three seasons, it also cleverly incorporated real-life events taking place in the country and touching aspects on life in post-war and towards post-independence Singapore that anyone who had lived through it will understand.

Like the poignancy of the news of how Singapore's separation from Malaysia back on 9 August 1965 was announced, just a few short statements on the radio, much like how my father, who was only a schoolboy at the time, recalled. History has since focused more on the television appearance the day after from the now-late Lee Kuan Yew, the prime minister at the time, and what he had to say to the gathered media and the time he shed tears live on television when giving the reasons for the separation from Malaysia.

And the show title is actually a reference to how people would tend to refer to the police in Malay, a term which is well known with Singaporeans regardless whether the Malay language is their mother tongue or not.

The comedy series which would come to be remembered in the history of local television in more ways than one. But many a times, it always goes back to the language being used which was initially frowned upon by the local language police and once a matter of big debate in the local media of whether this should have been allowed.

If anything, it is a comedy series which has since successfully challenged those norms and the title character who is a constructor, has since come to be reprised in public service announcements in times of crisis where many still remember actor and comedian (and one-time talk show host) Gurmit Singh's famous alter ego rapping on how to take care of oneself back at the height of SARS outbreak in 2003 which many pointed out did better in informing the public better than the official channels.

Or maybe it is because of the Singlish, the Singaporean branch of English which naturally only Singaporeans are able to understand. And that was what used to fly in the face of the local language police before it became acceptable in the name of entertainment. Even as much as the comedy series only revolves around Phua Chu Kang and his family, and his eternal business rival who can be a pain in the neck sometimes.

In a way it is also the comedy series which helped to launch the career of Gurmit Singh's on-screen younger brother Pierre Png (the studious Phua Chu Beng) where the latter has since being more famously being known outside of Singapore on 'Crazy Rich Asians'. But people like myself first knew him as Phua Chu Beng.

Anyone who remember the comedy series about the Tan family will remember the opening theme introducing the various members of the household, though it is more of a rap. And how each episode will always end with the patriarch telling a story where he always begin with 'Once upon a time...'.

If anything, it is served as a counterbalance of sorts to the language shown on 'Phua Chu Kang'. But much like 'Phua Chu Kang', it also indirectly helped to launch the careers and the visibility of most of those in it as well.

The television historical drama series that almost swept big at the local television awards in the same year when it was aired, and no wonder. Also titled 'The Price of Peace' in English and based on a 1995 book on the real-life accounts of those who survived the Japanese Occupation (how WWII is remembered here in Singapore as, from 1942 to 1945) along with first-hand accounts of war veterans.

As much it has fictional characters, it is also the inclusion of actual prominent local historical figures whom lived through those times which lent weight where it also helped in the opening theme song where it also included photo montages of them, the names that are only since remembered in the local history textbooks for a younger generation. It is the history lesson on television I never thought I needed until I really did it as a school subject in secondary school four years later when studying the history of my country, and realising that I used to see those names before. I was actually in primary school when this was first aired, and so a lot of those names mentioned in the series which I later realised were real-life local historical figures were whom I had known for the first time.

In a way in hindsight, it is the first TV drama series which made me realise the power of television (and films) to help tell real-life historical events, apart from documentaries.

Television drama series in Singapore in Mandarin tend to be approximately close to an hour long and shown daily on weekdays, and the longest it can go is up to 40 episodes. Rarely it has gone beyond that, but 'Holland V' did it with 125 episodes and running for two seasons, where it modelled on the style of Hong Kong-style TV soaps. It eventually hold the record of becoming the third-longest running local drama series in the history of local television.

When it was first released, it was originally for 115 episodes across two seasons, before it became a viewership and ratings winner and even leading to articles in the local newspapers on the popularity of it. Not many local TV productions can earn such an attention where articles about them have been written as well.

But the premise was rather basic. A family of adult siblings living in the real-life Holland Village (where it has always been associated in the local context for its food scene apart from where it has always been a popular place for expatriates to live in, if they did not want to do it in the city centre which technically lie near the southern part of Singapore) where the primary focus is the oldest sibling who is also the owner of a nasi lemak restaurant (or Malay mixed rice), before it also ventured out into the lives and loves of her younger siblings (where yes, one of those include Pierre Png whose character is one of the younger members of the family), married or not. Everything was seemingly going well, until a business rival came along and setting up nearby, disturbing the dynamics.

What also helped is the catchy opening theme song as well.

Even as someone who was a fan when it was on, but it also says something for me personally in a way is how it became a TV drama series that transcend language boundaries in terms of how my Indian-born English teacher at the time, once saying in class that she always look forward to each episode. And it was the English subtitles to help her get by to know what is going on.

Statistically, Singaporeans of Chinese descent (which form the majority population) and those who claim Teochew ancestry are the second-largest in the country, after the Hokkiens. This is so far the only Mandarin-speaking drama series, jointly produced in Singapore and China and also aired in both countries, to be placing the emphasise on the Teochew way of life for a rice merchant family from post-40s China to modern-day (or the 90s in this case when it was released) Singapore.

The family may be a fictional one, but the subtleties are there. Time and again, the expectations of being a Teochew woman is indirectly raised, and often challenged by the headstrong female characters in the drama series. The food is another.

Majority of the cast in the drama series are actually of Teochew descent, except for a few, like whom played the family matriarch (who is actually originally from South Korea), and the ones playing the Hainanese side of the family.

What is also striking, even for a joint production, is the theme song. It is sung by Hong Kong’s Cantopop singer Jacky Cheung. Not often even for a Singaporean TV drama series, where the theme song is not sung by a local singer.

(Personal disclosure: As someone who has Teochew ancestry from the father side of the family, in a way part of me see what I have been taught since growing up, in terms of how to address my various relatives, in the drama series of how the cast members call each other by level of seniority based on their own role in it. Watching it on Netflix for the first time because I was too young to recall the drama series when it first aired, everything started to make sense in terms of how I have always address my father’s siblings at gatherings, that I have been addressing them in the Teochew dialect all along.

And the places shown in China in the first few episodes and the final episode, it is where the Teochew-speaking community are predominantly located.)

It may be unthinkable to a younger generation of Singaporeans, that there was a Singapore before the existence of casinos. I was part of the previous generation who recalled that. Still the only local drama series to deal with gambling. And this was released way before casinos even became a reality here.