Celluloid Singapore

Abstract

Celluloid Singapore is not about Singapore cinema per se, or Singapore, but both. It is a ground-breaking study of the three major periods in Singapore cinema’s fragmented history – the golden age (50s and 60s), post-studio 70s and revival from the 1990s onwards. Set against the context of Singapore’s own trajectory of development, the book poses two central questions: how can the films of each period be considered Singapore films, and how is this cinema specifically national? Celluloid Singapore argues that the films of these three periods collectively constitute a national cinema through different performances of Singapore, offering a critical framework for understanding this cinema and its history in relation to the development of the country and the national.