ABSTRACT
The history of Singapore’s film industry is generally constituted by two distinct periods. The first is its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw the prolific outpouring of primarily Malay films. The second is its so-called rebirth in the 1990s, when film production was revived after petering out in the 1970s and ceasing to exist altogether in the 1980s. Just as the current constitution of the industry is not recognizable as a legacy inherited from the golden age, the films produced in each period are also very different. One of the most obvious differences is in the setting of these films, which reflect the changes that have taken place in Singapore’s landscape since its independence in 1965. In tandem with the fledgling government’s drive toward nation building in the 1970s and 1980s was an urgent push to redevelop Singapore to meet the housing needs of its population as well as quickly industrialize the country. Villages, or kampung, that used to dominate the island were systematically eradicated to make way for a more urban cityscape of skyscrapers, public housing apartment blocks and satellite towns. As such, whereas golden age films tended to depict Singapore’s simpler kampung or rural past, revival films generally feature Singapore’s new urban landscape instead, reflecting the country’s development “From Third to First World,” as declared by the title of Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs.
