Six Singapore film-makers explore national identity in Kopitiam Days anthology for SG60 – !

SINGAPORE – A black coffee and soft-boiled egg combination was the spark behind the nation’s official film marking the 60th anniversary of Singapore’s independence. A kopitiam, or coffee shop, loosely connects characters from the six short films from six writer-directors that make up the Kopitiam Days anthology. Set to premiere from July, it comes a decade after the critically acclaimed 7 Letters anthology, released in 2015 as part of the SG50 celebrations. That film showcased directors Eric Khoo, Boo Junfeng, Jack Neo, Royston Tan, Kelvin Tong, K. Rajagopal and Tan Pin Pin.Kopitiam Days is part of celebrations commemorating Singapore’s 60th birthday. A series of films, dramas, publications and exhibitions will be launched, with the theme for the SG60 celebrations being “Stories made with SG, for SG and beyond”.Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, said at a press event on April 9: “Singapore has come a long way since 1965, and our media sector has grown alongside this, becoming the colourful, creative media landscape we see today. As part of SG60, our media community, in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), will embark on a range of projects to celebrate our Singaporean-ness. They will tell our stories on what Singapore means to each one of us, and share our hopes and dreams for the Singapore we like to see for generations to come.”Award-winning local film-maker Khoo, the executive producer and creative director of the project, tells The Straits Times about the common concept behind all six stories. “I was enjoying my kopi o kosong and soft-boiled eggs one early October morning in 2024 at my favourite kopitiam, the original Killiney Kopitiam in Killiney Road, when the idea struck me. I wanted to watch a film set in an old kopitiam that had seen the decades go by and the people’s lives it had touched,” says the 60-year-old Cultural Medallion recipient. The Singapore Film Commission liked the idea, and he, with executive producers Fran Borgia, Tan Fong Cheng and Lim Teck, went looking for film-makers. Borgia is the founder of production company Akanga Film Asia, while Lim is managing director of the Clover Films label. Khoo and Tan are producers with Zhao Wei Films.“I wanted a diverse range of Singaporean directors who have not participated in a local anthology before and roped in my friends to help me produce,” Khoo adds. They were looking for a mix of experienced and up-and-coming candidates who could handle films in English, Malay, Tamil, Mandarin and several Chinese dialects, a mix that was also present in 7 Letters.However, there will be one difference between 7 Letters and Kopitiam Days: the tone of the stories. The former featured grounded stories, such as Neo’s That Girl and Tong’s GPS (Grandma Positioning System), as well as more abstract works, such as Tan Pin Pin’s Pineapple Town. Also, there was no plot device connecting them.Khoo says: “I wanted heart and soul in the new film to reach out to a wide audience. The only thing the film-makers had to follow was that, at some point, their characters would need to be at the kopitiam.“As it’s Singapore’s 60th anniversary, I thought six directors would fit Kopitiam Days nicely. I wanted the short films to be tight so that we will end up with a 90- or 100-minute full-length feature.”Film-maker Eric Khoo is the executive producer and creative director of the project.ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOOLim, 50, adds that a decades-old kopitiam has been identified as a possible location for filming the scenes that tie the stories, and their anthology had to be “less abstract and more emotional”.“We asked that the directors make something from the heart. We want to do screenings at community centres and regional hubs across Singapore, and also extend invitations to schools to hold screenings.” The producers also hope to have Kopitiam Days, which is now in the early stages of production, on a streaming platform by the end of 2025. There are no plans for a theatrical release. ‘Different cooks making their own kaya toast sets’: Sampling the six shortsThe films in Kopitiam Days represent a mix of languages and time periods. Some are based on real events, places and organisations, while others are heavily fictional. There are five men and one woman in the mix, with ages ranging from 30 to 50. This is a new team, with no directors returning from 7 Letters. Most of the new team is based here, while Tan Siyou looks at Singapore through the lens of an artist who has lived in Los Angeles for the past decade. What each has in common is that it is responding to the idea that Singapore has existed for 60 years and is an independent nation. Dragon Gate Assembly, directed by Yeo Siew HuaThe story: In this fantasy action comedy set in the 1980s, a local coffee shop becomes an inn, similar to the ones found in wuxia literature and movies. In this space, interesting characters gather, and intrigue and romance flourish. Using a kopitiam as a stand-in for the inns of classic wuxia cinema makes sense to local director Yeo Siew Hua.PHOTO: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALUsing a kopitiam as a stand-in for the inns of classic wuxia cinema makes sense to Yeo Siew Hua: Both kinds of establishments are meeting places where dramatic events can happen. “I have witnessed all kinds of occurrences, from fights to romances, while having my kopi at the coffee shop,” he says in an e-mail from Argentina. He is on the festival jury at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, which runs from April 1 to 13.“It was very natural for me to think how we can transpose some of these familiar conventions and ideas of the wuxia genre onto our colourful social spaces that are part of everyday lives,” he adds. Yeo’s crime thriller A Land Imagined (2018) won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. Earlier in 2025, his drama Stranger Eyes (2024) opened in cinemas here. The film about characters whose lives are affected by widespread electronic surveillance was the first Singapore film to compete for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The title Dragon Gate Assembly is a play on Chinese director-actor King Hu’s Taiwanese classic Dragon Inn (1967), a film which inspired remakes New Dragon Gate Inn (1992), starring Maggie Cheung, and Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate (2011), headlined by Jet Li. Coffee shops are “the most well-preserved spaces in our rapidly developing city”, says Yeo, 40. Their owners have been there from before independence and have “witnessed Singapore at its most nascent”. In a city that has evolved in ways pioneers could not have imagined, the food they serve and the space they provide for anyone seeking respite have stayed the same.“There are not many things here we can claim that haven’t changed. But I would like to think that the kopi I drink now tastes just as bitter and sweet as it was back then.” Meet Me At The Pavilion, directed by Shoki LinThe story: Ai Hua, a woman in her 60s, is the lead performer in an amateur Hainanese opera troupe. When an upcoming show is in danger of cancellation, she meets the sponsor in a bid to change his mind. Shoki Lin is the youngest film-maker of the group. PHOTO: COURTESY OF SHOKI LINShoki Lin, 30, is the youngest film-maker of the group. His family has a personal connection to Hainanese opera: A distant uncle of his was a troupe leader and a performer in the Singapore Hainan Society Opera Troupe. Lin says: “Whenever my uncle spoke about the opera, he would light up when describing its shows. But he also spoke about some of the challenges they faced – securing funding, selling tickets and recruiting new members.”The millennial director is behind the short films Adam (2019), Chasing Paper (2018) and Changi (2017). Adam was selected to screen at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Chasing Paper competed at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival, while Changi won Best Picture at the 2017 National Youth Film Awards. His short film Newborn (2020) opened the Singapore International Film Festival. Meet Me At The Pavilion will feature the Hainanese dialect and is about a performer struggling to keep her troupe going. For Lin, the story carries personal significance.“I grew up in a family that had a strong connection to its Hainanese heritage, but never managed to learn the language. That made me think about the implication of losing a connection with a cultural lineage and language. As the troupe reckons with a culture teetering on irrelevance, I wonder if they, too, feel like something within themselves is being lost,” he says. iZ-1, directed by M. Raihan HalimThe story: A curmudgeonly makcik living in one of Singapore’s last kampungs is given a robot helper named iZ-1. The woman is hostile to the artificial intelligence taking care of her, but their relationship later gains warmth and understanding. M. Raihan Halim’s iZ-1 is a “love letter” to the older women in his life, in particular, his grandmother.PHOTO: PAPAHAN FILMSThe curious image of an android at work in a traditional kampung house is a reason M. Raihan Halim wants to tell this story. It is part buddy comedy and, part “love letter” to the older women in his life – particularly his grandmother, who is in her 80s.“She’s been living on her own after my grandpa passed. No matter how much we try to convince her to get a domestic helper, she refuses because she doesn’t like the idea of living in a little flat with another person,” he says. If that helper were a machine, but could care for an elderly person like a human, that might solve his conundrum, he thought. “The fantasy that my siblings and I have is to imagine that there’s a robot that can take care of her. That’s how it all began,” says M. Raihan, 43.His second feature La Luna (2023) screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival and closed the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The Malay-language film was also selected as Singapore’s entry to the 97th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.iZ-1 is set in Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore’s last surviving traditional village. But because he felt that the site was overexposed in the media, he looked for a place in Malaysia with the same rural-urban juxtaposition.“We found a house in Kuala Lumpur that looks very much like it belongs in Lorong Buangkok. It’s in a small village surrounded by tall buildings. It’s as Buangkok-y as you can get.” Red Plastic Chairs On Sticky Floors, directed by Tan SiyouThe story: A film-maker in Amsterdam, while editing the sound on her project, develops feelings of homesickness. Singapore director Tan Siyou has been based in Los Angeles for the last decade.PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAN SIYOUTan Siyou decided that she, too, would make something personal and almost autobiographical. She is a Singaporean film-maker in Amsterdam, missing the sounds of home. Tan, 36, has been based in Los Angeles for the last decade, but is now in the Netherlands capital to do post-production work on her debut feature Amoeba. In an e-mail interview, she speaks about her desire to explore the power of sound to take listeners to places of the imagination or memory. “One of my favourite things to do when I am in Singapore is to sit alone at my familiar kopitiam downstairs and be among the bustle of people coming and going”, adding that its beautiful cacophony is powerfully evocative.“The sounds of Singapore are so specific – our weather affects how we walk, dress and talk. The way we talk is magnificent and so unique. When I hear these sounds, I am instantly transported back home,” she says. Tan’s short films Strawberry Cheesecake (2021) premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and Hello Ahma (2019) screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale. She likes the Kopitiam Days anthology format because viewers can sample different styles in one film.“It’s like asking different cooks to make their own kaya toast set. Each one will be different – there are different types of bread, colours of kaya, sizes of butter squares and eggs made to different consistencies. It’s a gift for everyone to sample.”One Last Song, directed by Don AravindThe story: The 1986 Hotel New World collapse is the cataclysm casting a shadow over a love story involving young couple Latha and Michael. Don Aravind imagined a fictional love story for Our Last Song. PHOTO: COURTESY OF DON ARAVINDFor his film, Don Aravind imagined a fictional love story – with dialogue in Tamil – set against the backdrop of a real-life tragedy: the collapse of Singapore’s Hotel New World in 1986 that claimed 33 lives. The 42-year-old was only three when it happened. He remembers his father talking about it at the time, when Singaporeans were shaken out of their sense of complacency about natural or man-made disasters. “My father said the country came to a standstill. It wasn’t a disaster you read about in other countries – it happened right in the middle of the city,” he says. He spoke to Khoo about his idea, and both felt that as long as the tragedy was dealt with in a sensitive way, its topic would fit into the anthology.Aravind’s career highlights include directing episodes of the Mediacorp series Tanglin (2015 to 2018) and the A Plate Of The Moon episode for HBO Asia’s Food Lore drama series (2019). The hotel collapse remains a painful memory for many, he says, but adds that his experience making documentaries has made him aware of the power of narratives that celebrate resilience.“When I interview people who have gone through an ordeal, what I get is a sense of hope,” he says. It is a feeling that he wants those watching One Last Song to receive as well. The Morning Call, directed by Ong Kuo SinThe story: An elderly coffee-shop owner treasures his old payphone because it belonged to his late wife. A visit by his American granddaughter sets in motion events that reflect their differing views on what it means to truly stay connected in an age when communication is available any time, anywhere. Director Ong Kuo Sin’s The Morning Call was inspired by a newspaper article about how payphones were still maintained in parts of Singapore. PHOTO: COURTESY OF ONG KUO SINOng was browsing The Straits Times in November 2024 when he saw an article about how telcos still maintained payphones in parts of Singapore, despite the prevalence of mobile phones. The story put a focus on an elderly shopkeeper who clung to his orange payphone, devices that were once a common sight, but are now rarely seen. The payphone will remain in his possession as a personal landline, the shopkeeper reportedly said, because his late mother used to call him on it and his sentimental attachment to it is too strong.Ong, 50, director of the Golden Horse-nominated Mark Lee-starring drama-comedy Number 1 (2020), has fond memories of the once-ubiquitous public phones. “During basic military training in national service, we were given three minutes a night to use the coin phone. We lined up to make the three-minute call. You had to decide who to call and what to say. I called my mum a lot,” he recalls. For him, the payphone is tied to positive feelings of being connected to the familiar while stuck in a strange place. Ong – whose Number 1 sequel, Number 2, opened in cinemas in January – is eager to explore the paradox of technology that allows constant communication, yet seems to cause people to drift apart. “As a Singaporean film-maker, I’m always looking for the Singapore identity. I’m going to explore the days before mobile phones, when everyone relied on just one mode of communication.”The Morning Call, which will largely be in Mandarin and Hokkien, will explore the nostalgic feelings that many Singaporeans have for a time when the ability to use the telephone was limited, and therefore communication felt more precious and meaningful. “There was a time when we all had one phone at home, which everyone shared. Now, we are all connected, but at the same time, we’re disconnected from one another,” he says. Join ST’s Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.