Cities on screen: seven snapshots of Singapore

This article is part of a guide to Singapore from FT Globetrotter

You can still find the old Singapore on screen — the vegetable farms of Potong Pasir, the hawker markets that would be turned into malls, the hubbub of Boat Quay as a working harbour. But the movies that captured those sights are mostly now lost like the landmarks themselves, left to be tracked down in grainy archive on YouTube.

Instead, the (excellent) cinema of Singapore you’ll find on streaming platforms in 2022 was made in the wake of the urban redevelopment that defines the modern city. That transformed landscape is a constant presence in those movies, and often key to their stories too. They bear witness to a place that, now as then, is a patchwork of global influences — with a soul all its own.

Ramen Teh (2018)

Where to watch: available to stream on Amazon Prime

If a single director offers a one-stop-shop guide to modern Singapore, it is the prolific Eric Khoo, who broke through in the 1990s. His body of work includes panoramic social dramas set in the city-state’s ubiquitous Housing and Development Board flats (12 Storeys) and an account of the slow disappearance of its beloved hawker stalls (Wanton Mee). His most recent movie is another story of food and identity, Ramen Teh (Ramen Shop), a cross-cultural family drama with a Japanese-Singaporean chef searching for his roots — softer-edged than his earlier films but just as evocative as a portrait of Singapore.

A Land Imagined (2018)

Where to watch: Netflix

Cranes dot the horizon in director Yeo Siew Hua’s 2018 thriller A Land Imagined. The red safety lights against the night sky make a perfect emblem for a city continually rebuilding itself to the point of reinvention. But the endless construction sites are more than just set-dressing in a 21st- century noir in which a Chinese migrant worker goes missing while toiling on a land-reclamation project. The mystery is bound up with the physical drama of Singapore’s transformation — here where vast tracts of sand imported from other countries are used to extend the very mass of the city.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube and other platforms

The same year that A Land Imagined tackled the darker realities of Singapore, the city-state was also host to a giddy cultural juggernaut that seduced audiences worldwide. Crazy Rich Asians is the fairytale of a New Yorker who discovers her boyfriend is part of an immensely wealthy family of Singapore aristocrats. Under the soapy surface is a droll clash of old and new money, themes of class and social climbing. The gleam of modern luxury also comes with a hint of the grander end of the city’s past. The palatial interiors — stuffed tiger included — were based on old family photographs contributed by the writer of the bestselling source novel, Kevin Kwan, descended from the founder of OCBC Bank.

Ilo Ilo (2013)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other platforms

If Crazy Rich Asians had a hint of autobiography, the acclaimed Ilo Ilo was also shaped by the early life of its creator. But the experience of director Anthony Chen was very different from that of Kevin Kwan. Backdropped by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the film was tied up with the lack of work-life balance that has long afflicted ordinary Singaporeans. Its Chinese title is “Mom and Dad Aren’t Home” — and for the parents of a near-delinquent 10-year-old, their jobs are so demanding of time that a Filipino domestic helper, Teresa, is hired to look after the boy. The story that follows is steeped in the detail of Singapore, from “Singlish” dialogue through haircuts and fashions to the financial precarity of the central family — and Teresa’s uncertain place in the city.

Saint Jack (1979)

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

If most of the films here are rooted in the modern Singapore, the sleazy brio of Saint Jack caught the city in a moment of transformation. It is also a Hollywood curio with a rum back-story. The starting point was Paul Theroux’s novel of an American pimp. The book caught the attention of no less than Orson Welles; he recommended it to actress Cybill Shepherd; she duly secured the film rights as part of a legal settlement, having sued Playboy for printing photos of her on set in the late, great Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show. The film of Saint Jack went ahead in 1979 with Bogdanovich directing. With a local cast supporting star Ben Gazzara, Bogdanovich shot in a Singapore soon to be literally demolished or — like the infamous Bugis Street night market — transformed from fleshpot to tourist attraction. The whole thing was too much for the authorities, who banned the movie until 2006.

Singapore Dreaming (2006)

Where to watch: DVD

Former president SR Nathan was among those who hailed the realism of the 2006 comedy Singapore Dreaming. Yet the movie lies some way from the rose-tinted visions usually enjoyed by politicians. Instead, it is a satire of life at the sharper end of the city-state’s economy, where a lottery win is only the beginning of the problems for an ordinary family plagued by their aspirations to the “5Cs” said to make up the Singapore Dream (cash, car, condo, credit card and country club).

Shirkers (2018)

Where to watch: Netflix

Another snapshot of Singapore at a moment frozen in time, Shirkers is a charming punky comedy-thriller made in 1992 by young director Sandi Tan and two friends — and a documentary about the strange events that happened next. That movie-after-the-fact centres on the American expat film tutor who acted as Tan’s mentor, then absconded with the footage. Three decades later, Tan returned to the mystery of her movie — telling a tale of youthful vision and adult skulduggery that also acts as a heady time capsule of the city it was made in.

What’s your favourite film set in Singapore? Tell us in the comments

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