January 8, 2017

If the Hollywood stuff of movie magic and platitudinous happy endings have your nose turned up, why not opt for local film entertainment? Unlike its prodigious competitor, the local film industry decries the typical narrative of an underdog’s success and lacks sufficient funding for awesome CGI and sound effects. Instead, local films promise an “other” form of entertainment, more accurately, a glimpse into the life of a State classified deviant such as prostitutes and gangsters. Dr Edna Lim (Dept of English Language and Literature) posits that local films have become an arena for the “other” Singaporean to gain prominence and find a voice. Their “otherness” is juxtaposed to the Singapore success narrative of economic progress, social stability and English proficiency. In choosing to feature the “other”, Singapore’s film industry relinquishes its potential to produce multiple mass appealing local movies. Hence local film provides an alternative form of entertainment, instigating greater introspection into the untold stories of Singapore. 

This article, “Coming up for air: Film and the Other Singaporean”, was published in Kinema (2007).