It’s a Great Great World

大世界

Singapore, 2011, colour, 1.85:1, 88 mins.

Director: Tang Yongjian 唐永健 [Kelvin Tong].

Rating: 6/10.

Likeable but very local heartwarmer centred on a once-famous Singapore amusement park.

STORY

Singapore, the present day. As the owner (Xue Jiayan) of Brilliant Pearl Photo Shop packs up and prepares to close down the veteran business, her granddaughter Min (Wang Liting), a fashion photographer, is intrigued by some old pictures. The owner tells her how the history of Brilliant Pearl and the legendary Great World Amusement Park, which finally closed in 1978 after 40 years, were intertwined. Min visits the aged Wu Aming (Zhou Chuming), who used to sell kebabs at Great World, to question him about some of the people in the pictures. Wu Aming recalls a day, 15 Feb 1958, when Bu (Cheng Xuhui), who was a clown in a children’s theatre troupe at Great World, was desperate to have his picture taken with Elizabeth Taylor, who was visiting the park’s Sky Theatre for the Singaporean premiere of Around the World in 80 Days. Bu skived off work from his authoritarian boss Tiger (Zeng Guocheng) and got Brilliant Pearl photographer Chen Ahua (Lin Xiangping) to help get the picture. There are also the stories of a romance in the mid-1960s between Liang (Zhang Zhenhuan), a cocky young guy from Malaysia, and Meijuan (Bai Weixiu), who worked at a shooting gallery, and how they took a ride on the park’s Ghost Train; of the dancer Orchid (Cai Qiuhui) at the Flamingo Niteclub and her manager Peter (Huang WenyYong) in the mid-1970s; and the bombing of Singapore on 8 Dec 1941 during a dinner thrown by businessman Lin (Chen Shucheng) at the Wing Choon Yuen Restaurant for the wedding of his mute daughter Lin Meilian (Hong Yixin).

REVIEW

The ability of critic-turned-filmmaker Tang Yongjian 唐永健 [Kelvin Tong] to think outside the small box of the Singaporean industry is again in evidence in It’s a Great Great World 大世界. At their best (Rule #1 第一诫, 2008; Kidnapper 绑匪, 2010), Tang’s previous films have taken established Asian genres and given them a fresh, atypically Singaporean twist, and in Great World he’s taken the all-star-lineup tradition of Chinese New Year movies – long a Hong Kong staple – and combined it with a huge nostalgia trip for Singaporeans who can still remember when life in the tiny republic had (a) a more communal simplicity and (b) a more vigorous local culture of its own, symbolised by the famous Great World Amusement Park 大世界 (1929-78) in the centre of the island. The result is a slick, enjoyable slice of retro entertainment that won’t mean much to anyone beyond Singaporeans and Malaysians of a certain age but has enough ingenuous charm to work with audiences familiar with the Southeast Asian lifestyle – and especially its unique pot-pourri of Chinese dialects.

With its large array of MediaCorp artists – plus veteran Hong Kong actress Xue Jiayan 薛家燕 [Nancy Sit], popular in Southeast Asia – the movie is also a spot-the-face game for local audiences, though several transcend the format with likeable performances of their own. Cheng Xuhui 程旭辉 [Henry Thia] (best known for his doofus roles in the comedies of Liang Zhiqiang 梁智强 [Jack Neo]) has fun as a mother’s-boy movie fan obsessed with getting his picture taken with Elizabeth Taylor; Lin Xiangping 林湘萍 [Yvonne Lim] is lively as a tomboy photographer; and popular Bai Weixiu 白薇秀 [Joanne Peh] (from hit TV drama The Little Nyonya 小娘惹, 2008) and Zhang Zhenhuan 张振寰 make a cute young 1960s couple in a story of innocent first love.

Basically four stories told in flashback, and set during specific periods (the 1941 Japanese bombing of the island, the 1965 separation of Malaysia and Singapore, etc), the script uses the rather obvious device of a veteran photo studio closing down to link the episodes but after an awkward start gets into its stride with the first story (featuring Cheng and Lin) and pretty much keeps on a roll after that, with a mix of comedy, romance and songs/music. Production values are good and colourful, though at times the film seems constrained by its relatively modest funds. Tang’s laudable ambition to take Singaporean production into a bigger arena would have been even better with a bigger budget and a more developed screenplay: the region has so many untold stories from its past that Great World is best viewed as a promising start rather than a complete success in its own right.

CREDITS

Presented by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures (SG). Produced by Raintree Pictures (SG), Boku Films (SG).

Script: Tang Yongjian [Kelvin Tong], Ken Kwek [Guo Zhixuan], Chen Jianbin [Marcus Chin]. Photography: Zhao Weixian. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Huang Fushan [Joe Ng], Hu Yali [Alex Oh]. Art direction: Tommy Chan. Costume design: Li Wei’en. Sound: Yu Wah Hoi, Wang Qingsheng. Visual effects: Jay Hong (Vividthree Productions), Yi In-ho, Kim Heui-yeong (Macrograph). Choreography: LA Dance Connection.

Cast: Lin Xiangping [Yvonne Lim] (Chen Ahua, photographer), Yang Zhilong (Xiong), Wang Liting (Min), Xue Jiayan [Nancy Sit] (Min’s grandmother), Lin Ruping (Min’s neighbour), Zhou Chuming (Wu Aming), Chen Xuhui [Henry Thia] (Bu), Li Ming [Lai Meng] (Bu’s mother), Chen Tianwen (Bu’s friend), Zheng Yingying (Hong Mao/Angmo), Zeng Guocheng (Hu/Tiger), Gurmit Singh (guard at Sky Theatre), Bai Weixiu [Joanne Peh] (Meijuan), Zhong Yaonan (Liang’s father), Zhang Zhenhuan (Liang, Meijuan’s boyfriend), Hong Weiyang (gangster with rashes), Ng Hui (Ting), Zheng Geping (Ghost Train operator), Xiang Yun (Meigui/Rose), Cai Qihui (Flamingo Niteclub dancer Orchid), Babes in the City (nightclub dancers), Huang Wenyong (Peter), Guo Liang (Henry), Chen Shucheng (Lin, Lin Meilian’s father), Hong Yixin (Lin Meilian, mute bride), Wang Lujiang (junior chef Qiang), Zhang Yaodong (junior chef Dong), Chen Jianbin (head chef), Zhong Qin [Kym Ng] (Sister Zhen), Shen Qing (fish deliveryman), Zhou Chongqing (hysterical woman), Xie Jingyi (Luan), Cheong Ah Tong (Uncle Wen), M.P. Chrishan (mover), Lin Zhenghao (Tek Ko), Kevin Chiak (Jio Tau), Kelly Schuster (Elizabeth Taylor), Harry Tan (her driver), Ethan Ong, Kirsten Khoo, Alex Khoo, Nicholas Khoo, Jeanette Koh (kids at game stall), Anthony Kho (roast chestnut seller), Wang Zhiguo (Ting’s boyfriend), Yenny Widjaja, Bibiana Tan, Vivienne Tan, Adeline Ng, Dapheny Chen, Samantha Kan (Flamingo Niteclub dancers), Chi Subao (nightlub man), Ng Tek Choon (bridegroom’s father), Zhang Cuiying (bridegroom’s mother), Guo Zhixuan [Ken Kwek] (kitchen helper), Xing Ang (father at photo studio), Emma Yong (his wife), Zheng Caili (their daughter).

Release: Singapore, 27 Jan 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 13 Jun 2011.)