with an introduction by Neha Thantry

Step into a romantic reinvention of 1960s Singapore with Yonfan’s Bugis Street (1995), as sixteen-year-old Lian navigates the chaotic world of Sin Sin Hotel, where she works as a receptionist for an eclectic crew of trans sex workers. Part coming-of-age tale and part nostalgic homage, the film invokes a version of the now metropolitan city-state that seems to have disappeared without a trace. The film resists the watered-down, singular narrative of Singapore’s past as told in primary school history textbooks, offering an oft-forgotten ode to a fluid history that continues to surprise audiences even today, and has stood the test of time despite facing conservative media uproar and heavy censorship when it was released. With its moody jewel tones and endearingly eccentric cast of characters, the anemoia of Bugis Street is instantly alluring and immersive, yet also tinged with a hint of melancholia for what is eventually lost in the backdrop of burgeoning development it is set against.

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