All we hear is...

Singapore GaGa (2015)
Director: Tan Pin Pin


I would not have given a second look at this hour-long experimental show that was due to be screened in Kuala Lumpur as part of bilateral cultural exchange.

Unfortunately, the Malaysian censor board felt that one of the words uttered was deemed confusing. The committee decided that that part of the speech must be blanked to avert apparent confusions at the level of infantile minded audiences. The director refused, and the presentation was withdrawn.

The director had performed to sell-out crowds in Singapore and at various international film festivals just for the records.

The presentation is a collection of sounds in the daily lives of an average Singaporean as he travels the MRT, walks on the streets and his HDB flats. The familiar sounds are the basking at the stations, the loud succinct sounds of news read in local dialects and the public's murmur against their daily activities.

A senior citizen spends more of his daytime in the premises of an MRT station performing a one-man show of simultaneously blowing the harmonica with one hand, juggling two balls with the other while tap-dancing wearing a pair of clogs. He seems to have the delusion of grandiose that he is a national treasure.

Another lady who uses a wheelchair gets on by selling tissue papers for a dollar while breaking into a song quite so often. She is pretty contented that she has found Christ and has no qualms expressing her faith in public.

An interview with a 60-year-old harmonica player-teacher and another guitar player highlights the merits of learning the harmonica in school instead of recorders. A Singapore performer who performed in New York to rave newspaper reviews shows her mantel by playing a miniature piano alternating with a percussion. The percussion, a pair of bamboo canes, reminds her of the Tok-Tok Mee man of her childhood.

The 'controversial' part of the show is by a ventriloquist performing at a school function. The puppet 'Charlee' shows his language skills by translating words of his master - to the word 'kawan', he says 'binatang' (animal). I fail to see the controversy. Perhaps, I am just too thick!

Another scene that does not fit into the equation, perhaps the very reason it was included, is a sports day event at an Arabic school in Singapore. Even though their allegiance is to Singapore, singing the national anthem and patriotic songs, the lingua franca is Arabic!

What is the point of the presentation, you may ask? The way I see it, it is to showcase that even though Singapore showcases itself as a sovereign and unified state, it is divided with various identities deep inside. The old and the little people have been forgotten and lagged in the nation's race to reach first world nation status.