Writer: Lester Gan Wai Lun

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Watch this if you liked: Kidnapper” “Rule #1” and “Men in White”

With what is obviously an extensive and detailed research of Singapore's Great World amusement park, director Kelvin Tong ("Kidnapper" and "Men in White") and his co-writers Marcus Chin and Ken Kwek brings us "It's A Great Great World", a film so simple but yet extremely entertaining and fun. Using quarter of the budget towards the development of the sets, costumes and props, it practically feels like a 95 minute journey back to when the Great World Park was up and running.

The film consist of four rather short stories, each of them is set in a different decade starting with the year 1941 to the year 1978. Told in present day through the memory of Ah Meng (Chew Chong Meng), a kebab seller who used to sell his food inside the amusement park, the sentimental entity of the stories are completely ineffective to anyone that has never been to the Great World. On the other hand, it certainly gives a very clear perspective of the culture and life of the people that existed during that point of time. With the stories being almost entirely independent, audiences will find themselves having a stronger liking towards one of the four stories on offer.

Having a ridiculous amount (up to 25 plus) artistes from MediaCorp, as well as others from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan, the performance of the casts was close to outstanding, though most of them were only short pop-ups in random scenes, they were all great to say the least. To point out one, the pair up of Malaysian actress Lai Ming and Singaporean comedian Henry Thia as mother and son in one of the stories was both hilarious and heartwarming at the same time, a simple story of how the sacrifices of a son makes a mom happy.

The most appealing part about the film would be the abundance of Chinese dialects used in it including Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, Shanghainese, Hakka, and some poorly spoken Mandarin; accurately depicting how Singaporeans/Malaysians would have spoken back in those days. Also, the humour was cleverly written in many different dialects and would be nowhere equally as funny if it wasn't in that intended dialect (something a more senior generation would be able to appreciate).

In conclusion, it's a fun time in front of the big screen, creating a great experience especially for those who never knew the existence of Singapore's Great World amusement park and that it was once a part of Malaysia. A story of how memories of the places we've been to in the past will always remain with us despite the drastic changes made to it.

Cinema Online, 05 August 2011