Army Daze

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Army Daze is a Singaporean film made in 1996. A comedy based on the National Service experience by a group of enlistees in the Singapore Armed Forces, it was one of the earliest top-grossing films then, bringing in some S$1,600,000 at the local box office. Costing Cathay Asia Films just S$700,000 to make, it was also one of the most profitable Singaporean films at that time.

The storyline was based on a play by the same name originally written by Singaporean writer Michael Chiang. Directed by Ong Keng Sen, founder of the theatre group TheatreWorks, it attempts to portray the multi-cultural flavour of Singaporean society with the extensive use of Singlish. Standard English is also heard, along with Malay, Hokkien and Mandarin, amongst other languages. The tagline of the movie, From Real Blur (Singlish reference to a mental state of confusion) to Real Man also reflects this desire.

Some notable members of the cast included Sheikh Haikel as Johari, Adrian Lim as the Ah Beng, and Edward Yong as Malcolm Png. Other members of the cast include Ahmed Azad, Kevin Verghese, Margaret Chan, Lim Kay Tong and Deanna Yusoff.

1 Play
2 Remakes
3 Reference
4 External links

[edit] Play

Army Daze (Play)
Image:Army Daze Toy Factory.jpg
Written by	Michael Chiang
Characters	Malcolm Png Kenny Pereira Teo Ah Beng Krishnamoorthy Johari Salleh
Setting	National Service in Singapore

Army Daze, the play, was first shown in theatre in 1987.

The play made a return to the theatre scene in March 2006 as a production by The Toy Factory theatre ensemble. <ref> "Army Daze makes a comeback to the theatres", Channel NewsAsia, 27 February 2006. </ref> It opened on 2 March at the Drama Centre and ended on 18 March.

The play is directed by Beatrice Chia and Goh Boon Teck. The cast members are:

Hossan Leong as Malcolm Png
Robin Goh as Kenny Pereira
Sebastian Tan as Teo Ah Beng
Vernon A as Krishnamoorthy
Sheikh Haikel as Johari Salleh
Selena Tan as Mrs Png
Kumar as Lathi
Emma Yong as Teo Ah Huay
Benjamin Ng as Corporal Ong
Mark Richmond as Sgt Monteiro
Gerald Chew as Lt Collin Heng
Lim Kay Siu as Mr X

[edit] Remakes

The Hwa Chong Institution English Drama Club (EDC) put up a production of Army Daze on the 28th and 29th of July 2006; the directors were Lu Yong Quan and Young Yi Yong. The opening night saw an overwhelming response, with an audience of close to 500, and an almost full house for the second night. This was unprecedented, given HCI EDC's history, and repertoire of primarily minimalist plays (Of Trees and Boys, June 2004) and serious drama (Furthest North, Deepest South, November 2005), which drew only dismal crowds. Key actors in the play were Koh Jun Shyang as Malcolm, Wong Renjie as Johari, Choo Jun as Krishna, Eliseus Lean as Kenny and Zhao Jia Wei as Ah Beng. Actresses from Nanyang Girls' High School are Ng Chu Ting as Lathi, Joleen Teo as Mrs Png and Sarah Teo as Ah Lian, as well as Mr Kevin Cheng, an English Language and Literature teacher from HCI, as Mr X. The play was performed at the Drama Centre of Hwa Chong Institution.