Pinoy in Singapore

Before living in Singapore, my whole life I’ve been living in a house with no elevator.  So, I dunno, it might be common in other places too. 

But when we first came to Singapore,  I tried to watch movies and documentaries that would more or less give me a sense of what it’s like to live here.  I got to watch this one movie Singapore Dreaming. 

Singapore Dreaming” ( 美满人生 ) is a story about a family with big dreams, living on a small island.

 Heavily in debt, patriarch Loh Poh Huat can’t help but feel bitter irony whenever he has to perform his job as a lawyer’s clerk – seizing goods from the homes of credit card debtors. At the end of his career and frustrated by the gulf between his middle class dreams and his working class reality, he takes his feelings of failure and envy out on his family .

So when Poh Huat suddenly wins two million dollars in the lottery, the Lohs start believing that maybe this windfall will deliver them from their struggles. But something happens which pitches the family into a battle where the stakes are the very meaning of life itself…

“ Singapore Dreaming” is a poignant, yet darkly humorous story about a typical Singaporean family coming to grips with their aspirations. It weaves a layered and moving tale about a family dealing with loss, ambition and the search for what really matters in life.

I watched it because it had those laurel leaves on the jacket for winning a Montblanc New Screenwriters Award (I’m a sucker for movies with those laurel stamps even if it turns out the stamp is just for being an official selection to whatever.  I’d pretend I’m in art appreciation class and need to do a reflection paper on it afterwards.)  So in the movie, this character CK had this constant impulse to pee in the elevator.  And when we were watching the film, the concept of peeing in the elevator was unknown to me and it didn’t make any sense.  I thought who the hell pees in an elevator??

Last night when we came home, the elevator had that distinct ammonia smell and I even said I think the cat got in the elevator. 
But when I looked more closely (well not that closely), I saw the pee marks were much higher and couldn’t have been made by a cat.  Somebody peed on the elevator!!!  EEWW!!!
As for the movie, it wasn’t bad.  It had a kind of “Tanging Yaman” feel to it.  Before I watched the movie, I thought all Singaporeans were made.  This movie made me realize that their middle class have similar struggles as ours in the Philippines.