Plot

Ah Bee goes on a comedic odyssey through Tiong Bahru Social Club, a data-driven project to create the happiest neighborhood in the world. Little by little, his encounters with the neighborhood's residents reveal the absurdity of life.

For his 30th birthday, Ah Bee's mom gifts him a membership to the Tiong Bahru Social Club, a planned community of pastels and positivity dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. Yet is this a realistic goal that a prefab microcosm of society built on algorithms can safely achieve? While Ah Bee initially conforms to the club's homogenized rules of conduct, genuine thoughts and emotions begin to seep through, and he finds himself questioning the group ideal. Writer-director Tan Bee Thiam's insightfully whimsical world-building posits deep existential questions against a cheerily inventive background, where the creeping shadow of artificiality may in fact point to enlightenment.—New York Asian Film Festival