When Michelle Chang makes a promise, she’s the kind of person who makes sure she keeps to it, no matter how tough the going gets. So when the film and television veteran was blown away by an idea pitched by Mocha Chai Laboratories founder Chai Yee Wei, her promise of getting it made into a film was one she fulfilled, using all the means at her disposal to turn them from dream to reality.

“When I first visited Mocha Chai Laboratories, I was just so blown away by the whole facility,” says Michelle, on how the two met. “They started out as a very boutique studio providing Digital Cinema Packages, which is something Yee Wei figured out how to do on his own. The studio grew after Yee Wei made That Girl In Pinafore, and they expanded to take on post-production work as well, and for a long time they stopped producing any original content because of how busy things got. Then in 2019, I was talking to Yuni Hadi, who was Executive Director of the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) at the time, and she asked me if I could potentially help Yee Wei out to help with his idea of producing content.”

“I’d always known he was very passionate, and when I first visited their space, I was just blown away not just by their technical capabilities in the facility, but also how Yee Wei had this vision to provide total end-to-end services, and not just post,” she adds. “I straight up told him that I would probably not be directly involved, and instead help connect him with the right person, probably someone younger and with a lot more energy and passion – after all, I’ve been working with MediaCorp for so long that I more or less knew who to reach out to. But he insisted that he needed someone more mature, someone who knows how things are done, and wanted me to come on board.”

But before Michelle could accept his offer, she needed to see if Yee Wei’s ideas had potential. As it turned out – she was impressed. “Yee Wei came prepared, and already had three ideas in mind, each of them completely different – the first was a thriller, the second was horror, and both had twists I never saw coming,” says Michelle.

“Now the third one, that was a story that was titled ‘Writing Letters’. It was the least developed of the three, and just a sweet story about two relationships – a father and a daughter, and two older male friends. There aren’t that many film that focus on such relationships, and reminded me a little of Sideways, or Korean film JSA, about friendships of people from different worlds,” she continues. “I loved all three of those stories, and he asked if it was possible to get any of them on air, and I told him to give me some time, and I’ll make sure it happens. But I warned him that it would be a hard journey – especially since some of these were conceived as TV series, which can be a total marathon to get produced since you have to deal with streaming and broadcast platforms.”

‘Writing Letters’ is now better known by its title Wonderland, which made its premiere at the 2023 Singapore International Film Festival, before going on the festival circuit, even nabbing a Local Jury Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival, as well as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Mark Lee and Peter Yu respectively, at the Ho Chi Minh International Film Festival. Now, the film and its team are preparing for a homecoming this Wednesday, where it receives a grand red carpet premiere at Golden Village Vivocity.

Wonderland is based off the real life Wonderland Amusement Park in Singapore, which closed in 1989, when the film is set. The story follows a family in crisis, with Loke, a man who has just sold his house to finance his daughter’s education in America, moving into government housing, where he meets a group of older oddballs, including Tan, a choir director in hiding. When bad news begins to emerge, a series of white lies begins to surface between these friends and family members to protect each other, and the biggest one of all is strangely, perhaps one of the most prominent displays of love.

“I came up with the initial story outline and the main beats, but because the idea was still in development, we still had to find a screenwriter. We found someone to help out, and told him that if he had a better scene or great idea, then by all means, insert it,” says Michelle. “But when the script came back to us, it was completely different from what we expected, and deviated from the initially beats I planned. A compromise couldn’t be reached, and we parted ways amicably from there. We then found another writer, this time someone who was more experienced in television and film, but his tone was very safe and again, we couldn’t reach a compromise.”

“At this point, we were six months from the shoot, where we had already secured a crew and the manager kept asking us for the script because we needed to cast. The pressure was on, and eventually Yee Wei asked me to take a stab at writing the screenplay. “I said ‘are you crazy? I’m not a screenwriter!’ But they had confidence in me, and told me to take a stab at it, considering I’d already been living with these characters for so long, I was constantly talking about them like neighbours or close friends.”

So Michelle wrote the script, and made the impossible happen. Much of her inspiration for the film came from her relationship with her own 84-year old father, a dedicated film buff himself who passed on that love for movies to her since childhood. “He’s this huge collector, with thousands of LDs, DVDs, and CDs in his man cave, and shaped a lot of who I am today,” says Michelle. “So when I wrote this film, I told him that it’s about his generation, and I made a joke telling him not to fall asleep, because it doesn’t have anything supernatural, there’s no explosions and mostly just dialogue. And at the end of it, he said congratulations, because he didn’t fall asleep, but also felt touched by how authentic the Hokkien dialogue was, well-delivered by Mark and Peter, and that it’s true – his generation would like this film.”

Michelle recounts how she even began to tear up a little, completely unexpectedly, during the Q&A when she talked about him after the screening in Palm Springs, thinking about their relationship. If anything, she’s happy that the film has found legs, not just in Singapore, but in the international scene as well, resonating with audiences and viewers abroad. “At Palm Springs, half the crowd were Caucasians, but they said they were able to relate to these universal themes of relationships, and telling white lies to make our loved ones happy,” says Michelle.

Much of that boils down to elements such as the casting, which Michelle was heavily involved in. “Xenia (Tan), who plays Mark’s daughter, was a no-brainer – her audition was spot-on, and we knew it was her once we saw it. In the meantime, we knew we wanted Mark (Lee) to be involved, but didn’t want to cast him in a stereotypical role, and instead convinced him to play Loke to stretch his acting into doing more serious drama,” says Michelle. “Then Peter ended up auditioning for Tan, and everything aligned very well. If you approach it with sincerity and pitch it right, people will give you the time of day and give it a shot.”

Considering the period setting in the film itself, much of the focus also turned to the cinematography and capturing the sense of nostalgia and loss. “I remember Wonderland back in Kallang when I was growing up, the candy floss, the teddy bears as prizes, playing tikam-tikam, riding on the teacups…my parents also enjoyed going there because they’d be able to hang out with their friends, while the kids would see each other and run around the park,” says Michelle. “But the film cannot rely on nostalgia alone to sell itself – it has to be entertaining and real as well, and we wanted to make sure that people would take it seriously, which is why we toured it in the hopes of gathering accolades and press first, to hype it up before bringing it home for locals to watch.”

Now, Wonderland looks set for a warm welcome, with the red carpet premiere produced by Daniel Boey, who personally volunteered to take charge of it after watching the show. “A good friend of mine told me I had to improve my dress sense after seeing what I wore to SGIFF, so she called Daniel who ended up getting me some Thomas Wee pieces over Christmas, in preparation for Palm Springs,” says Michelle. “I was so surprised by it, and he didn’t even know if he would have enjoyed the film or not, but he said well, it was a Singapore film, and ended up being so touched by it and simply asked how else he could help. So that’s how the red carpet came about, and it feels so good to be able to do something of this scale for the film.”

Speaking to Daniel Boey, helping Michelle put together her ensemble for Palm Springs was revelatory, where she even caught the eye of a photographer for a suit she wore during a press event, and helped further raise the profile of the film. And more than ever, that with it returning to Singapore, it now needed to find as diverse and wide an audience as possible. “This is a movie that has the potential to reach a wider audience – I genuinely liked this film because of my own memories of Wonderland, this safe space where I could let go and be happy,” says Daniel Boey. “Which is why I collaborated with Design Orchard to create merchandise for the film, and ensure that the red carpet gala showcases the film at its best, with a good mix of guests and celebrities from spheres beyond the film community that respect the movie and can give great opinions and soundbites of the show.”

And it’s true – why not push harder for a film that the team has spent so much time and effort putting together, and should absolutely be proud of? Michelle is ready to launch this film in Singapore the right way, whether it’s creative merchandise that can appeal to even curious visitors who have yet to watch the film, capturing the essence of nostalgia, or simply using the red carpet platform to further raise its profile and increase the film’s potential demographic, it is now Wonderland‘s time to shine, and for locals to embrace it.

“This was not an easy film to pitch, because it’s quite unusual and most investors would want assurance on making money,” says Michelle. “But at the same time, I didn’t set out to make a show to win awards, but to tell an authentic Singaporean story. It takes a leap of faith, and I’m glad we got this opportunity to make it happen.”

Wonderland will have its red carpet gala premiere on 31st July 2024 at Golden Village Vivocity. Sneak previews from 2-4 August, before officially opening in cinemas on 8th August 2024, including Golden Village.