Review: Together We Stand, Live Again! by Ding Yi Music Company

Ding Yi’s first live concert since circuit breaker reminds us how the arts keep hope alive.  Taking place on a Sunday evening, it was raining heavily outside, but the music that kept us warm later on, as we settled into the Stamford Arts Centre black box for Ding Yi Music Company’s first live concert since the circuit breaker. Taking on a rather interesting format to … Continue reading Review: Together We Stand, Live Again! by Ding Yi Music Company

★★★☆☆ Review: Tiong Bahru Social Club dir. Tan Bee Thiam

The absurd idea of controlling happiness is lost in this manmade pastel utopia.   Touted as ‘Wes Anderson meets Black Mirror’, Tan Bee Thiam’s Tiong Bahru Social Club is a decidedly bolder film, both aesthetically and ideologically, compared to the usual Singaporean fare we’re used to seeing. Set in an alternate reality Singapore, the film’s title refers to a new initiative transforming the gentrified neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru into … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Tiong Bahru Social Club dir. Tan Bee Thiam

★★★★☆ Review: Dear Tenant dir. Cheng Yu-Chieh

Love conquers all, but is that much more difficult when the odds are stacked against you.  Taiwan has often been hailed as one of the most progressive Asian countries when it comes to LGBTQ rights, ranging from having an annual Pride parade, being a mecca for gay culture in Asia, and of course, legalising same-sex marriage since 2019. But as Cheng Yu-Chieh explores in his … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Dear Tenant dir. Cheng Yu-Chieh

★★★★☆ Review: Café by Wild Rice

Joel Tan’s purgatorial café gets a revival and feels more urgent than before in our very real crisis of 2020. In a year where countless F&B outlets have shut down amidst the coronavirus crisis, and the very real sense of doom continues to hang over our heads as the future remains uncertain, Joel Tan’s play Café seems more relevant than ever, as it receive a revival … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Café by Wild Rice

★★★☆☆ Review: Mine by Wild Rice

Wild Rice opens their series of Director’s Residency programmes with a mother-daughter tale about hoarding.  When you hear the term ‘hoarder’, the first image that comes to mind is likely a person dwarfed by heaps and heaps of paraphernalia in her own home, immediately labelled as having some sort of ‘problem’. But the truth is, it’s hard to tell a hoarder from a non-hoarder, often … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Mine by Wild Rice

Review: CRAVE by Bellepoque

Finding comfort in song when the world is in flames. In a year that’s felt like the end of the world, it’s not hard to extrapolate our nightmares from there and imagine what the apocalypse looks like. For some, it’s the collapse of the environment, as flowers go extinct and the world is on fire. For others, it might be the destruction of museums, the … Continue reading Review: CRAVE by Bellepoque

By The Book: An Interview with Ashley Chan and Gerrie Lim, co-authors of Scarlet Harlot – My Double Life

Ashley Chan seems to have it all figured out. University student by day, she’s somehow managed to find a night job that she’s good at pays the bills, and she enjoys, to a degree. The only ‘problem’? She’s an escort, and can’t tell anyone about it, lest they end up ruining her career and future in ultra-sensitive and conservative Singapore. That secret identity has led … Continue reading By The Book: An Interview with Ashley Chan and Gerrie Lim, co-authors of Scarlet Harlot – My Double Life

★★★★☆ Book Review: Scarlet Harlot – My Double Life by Ashley Chan and Gerrie Lim

Revealing the life of a Singaporean sex worker in this tell-all memoir.  It’s 2020, and high time we acknowledge that sex work is, well, work. And with an entire industry founded upon it, it’s perhaps surprising that we have yet to really hear about the life of someone who’s built their entire career on it, not least because of how popular culture and our conservative … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: Scarlet Harlot – My Double Life by Ashley Chan and Gerrie Lim

★★★★☆ Review: 男儿王 Number 1 dir. Ong Kuo Sin

One of Singapore’s first openly queer Mandarin films brings drag and LGBTQ issues to the mainstream with heart and humour.  RuPaul may have brought drag culture to mainstream audiences all over the world, but here in conservative Singapore, the idea of a man dressing up as a woman continues to be seen as a thing to be shunned, and a source of shame for most … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: 男儿王 Number 1 dir. Ong Kuo Sin

★★★★☆ Book Review: Calm – A Journal For Myself by PK Poniah

Keep calm and carry on. With how awful 2020 has turned out to be, it’s more important than ever to embrace the idea of mindfulness, and learn how to take care of our mental health so we don’t fizzle out all of a sudden with no warning. And according to PK Poniah, who has a masters in guidance and counselling, one way of doing that … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: Calm – A Journal For Myself by PK Poniah