Ah Boys To Men Part 1
Jack Neo
The story: Spoilt rich kid Ken (Joshua Tan) wants to wriggle out of national service enlistment to study overseas with his girlfriend. He is encouraged by his mother (Irene Ang) while his father (Richard Low) wants him to aim for Officer Cadet School. When Ken is eventually sent to Pulau Tekong, he tries ways and means to weasel out of training.

Writer-director Jack Neo starts his latest movie with a bang. Several, in fact. Singapore is under attack by an unknown enemy and planes are bombing iconic structures from the Merlion to Marina Bay Sands to HDB flats.
The visual effects are a step up from those seen in his previous works and the idea of modern-day Singapore at war is an intriguing one.
Yet the opening has the air of a national education message by the Ministry of Defence.
When the long gimmicky opening sequence is finally over, Neo puts on local comedienne Irene Ang in full-on auntie mode as a loud, pushy and unreasonable mother who is determined to get her son out of national service.
It is almost an hour before bratty rich kid Ken (Joshua Tan) gets enlisted anyway and we are introduced to a bunch of stereotypes who are his section mates.
There is clearly camaraderie among the group of fresh young actors, whose onscreen friendships and group dynamics could have been interesting to explore against the backdrop of military training.
But once again, Neo undermines himself.
Few of the recruits – from streetsmart Lobang (a naturalistic Wang Wei Liang) to eager beaver Aloysius Jin (Maxi Lim) – pass for actual characters.
Most problematic of all, the key character of Ken is a sulky boy with a bad temper and a worse attitude. Little wonder that he has problems with his girlfriend, their relationship is a hysterical sideshow that irritates instead of engages.
With the trials and triumphs of national service a familiar ground covered previously in Mandarin TV drama Army Series (1983), stage play Army Daze (1987) and documentary Every Singaporean Son (2010), to name a few examples, compelling characters would have made Ah Boys feel fresher.
What the film gets right is the portrayal of the tough and intimidating sergeants who dominate the lives of recruits.
There are even flashbacks to the old- school training of the past where sergeants had the power to order a stand-by bed in the parade square (yes, recruits would have to physically carry the bed and cupboard there).
As entertaining as they are, these glimpses into the past add to the bloated running time.
Perhaps one could play spot-the- film-sponsor to while away some of the time but then, the game would be too easy to be much of a challenge.
The oddest product placement was for an auditor. Stranded on a highway in the middle of a storm after a dramatic break-up, Ken bumps into a few cyclists wearing raincoats with a prominent company logo. They hand him a raincoat. Thank goodness they were there to save the day – and disrupt the rhythm of the film.
The change in Ken’s attitude is predictable and regrettably melodramatic, with Neo resorting to a last-minute incident as in many of his other films.
From the snippets glimpsed at the end of part 1, it seems that much of the drama among the recruits will be kept for part 2, along with more relationship troubles, though for someone else and not Ken.
Too bad part 1 does not make a convincing argument for splitting the movie into two parts in the first place.
(ST)