AH BOYS TO MEN — Part 10

Written by Yue Jie

Directed by: Jack Neo
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Running time: 113 min­utes
Classification: PG13 – Some Coarse Language
Release date: 8 November 2012
Rating: 3.5 / 5
(Mandarin with English subtitles)

Think big films, and then think the Singapore con­text. The first and most com­mon name that should come to mind is Jack Neo. At the 21^st film of his career, Ah Boys To Men doesn’t serve as just a mere slap­stick satir­i­cal com­edy for the local masses, but also aims to strike deep in the hearts of Singaporeans and our nation. Helmed by the local direc­tor, this first half of a two-part fea­ture that will hope­fully gar­ner enough atten­tion and momen­tum for the release of its sec­ond half is meant to com­mem­o­rate the 45^th anniver­sary of National Service (NS) in Singapore.

Ah Boys To Men stars a cou­ple of new up-and-coming faces mak­ing their foray onto the big screen — Tosh Zhang, Joshua Tan, Maxi Lim, Noah Yap and Wang Wei Liang – to name a few. In an era where social media is king, Neo’s deci­sion to select young adults for the main cast of the film has proven wor­thy in attract­ing audi­ences from the teenage demo­graphic due to the strong fol­low­ing that some of the cast have on social networks. Not only that, hav­ing the film based on army life and Basic Military Training (BMT) that all enlis­tees have to go through are strong fac­tors that will deter­mine its suc­cess at the box office.

As the pla­toon sergeant, Zhang’s act­ing is undoubt­edly stel­lar and most real­is­tic of all the cast. Tan, on the other hand, plays pro­tag­o­nist Ken Chow, a spoilt igno­rant boy with naïve thoughts try­ing to evade ser­vice and feign ill­ness to avoid train­ing. Chow’s narrow-mindedness and refusal to change for the bet­ter comes across as irk­some at times, to the annoy­ance of view­ers. Aside from the lineup of fresh faces, the recruits have to have par­ents in their lives as well. Hence the pres­ence of vet­eran actors Irene Ang and Richard Low who play par­ents to Chow. Ang por­trays the typ­i­cal Singapore par­ent who tries to ensure safety and utmost com­fort of her son while Low plays the reg­u­lar folk who goes strictly by the book.

Based on com­edy, Neo obvi­ously goes all out in comedic lines and actions to evoke roars of laugh­ter in audi­ences, from army lingo to the Singapore lifestyle that will relate strongly to teenagers, national ser­vice­men and the elderly. Not for­get­ting some infa­mous inci­dents that put the army in the spot­light, Neo is sure to include every­thing there is to jolt mem­o­ries of the nation­wide cases that became the talk of the town. However, hilar­i­ous moments aside, Neo still ensures that Ah Boys To Men deliv­ers a strong moral mes­sage, one that would res­onate strongly with youths wait­ing for enlistment.

For a local pro­duc­tion, the bud­get of S$3 mil­lion is one hefty sum, and a major­ity of it goes to the heav­ily computer-generated images (CGI) that make up the open­ing sequence of Ah Boys To Men. Undeniably the first local film ever to have CGI, some of the imagery may result in overkill for cer­tain scenes and seem a tad unre­al­is­tic. Still, the war-like sce­nar­ios played out in our lion city are undoubt­edly intrigu­ing to watch as it’s the first time we wit­ness our land­scape in ruins and help us under­stand what it feels like for Americans to watch the war films that Hollywood produces.

This local delight nonethe­less adds a sense of patri­o­tism in many of our youths today that are hope­fully eager to serve the army and serves as a walk down mem­ory lane for our folks that ded­i­cated their time years ago. As the first local film in a long time, Ah Boys To Men is def­i­nitely the must-see fea­ture for fam­i­lies and close friends over the week­end to have a great laugh at the­atres and have a good time!

Check out the trailer!