PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 25, 2020
SINGAPORE TATLER / HASHIRIN NURIN HASHIMI
The happiest neighbourhood in the world might just be right at our doorstep … or is it? Filmmaker Tan Bee Thiam offers a satirical take on the Singaporean construct of happiness in his solo directorial debut
Happiness can mean different things to different people. For Tan Bee Thiam, it is doing what you love: “Work fulfilment is happiness to me, as well as being around my loved ones.”
But what if happiness becomes a competition? The filmmaker questions the construct of happiness in Singapore—and the country’s obsession with quantifiable results, whether it is the GDP or the happiness index—in his first full-length feature, Tiong Bahru Social Club, which is the opening film of the 31st Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which takes place from November 26 to December 6 in a hybrid format. Written by Tan and Antti Toivonen, the satirical comedy tells the story of Ah Bee, who takes on the job of a happiness agent in a data-driven programme as per the film’s title to build the happiest neighbourhood in the world, within the idyllic Tiong Bahru district.
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Interestingly, Toivonen is from Finland, which was declared the happiest country in the world for the third year running in the 2020 edition of the annual United Nations World Happiness Report. Singapore takes the 31st spot. “While we are not very happy, Singapore is the most competitive country in the world. The film is a hybrid of both the Finnish and Singaporean sensibilities, but the idea of happiness as a competition is, of course, absurd because then it becomes ironic,” enthuses Tan.
So even though Ah Bee diligently carries out his tasks at the Tiong Bahru Social Club, from taking care of an elderly resident and her cat to leading group happiness exercises, there is a risk of him losing his job should the “gross community happiness index”, which addresses all aspect of happiness through an artificial intelligence algorithm, fall below par—and thus revealing the fractures of enforced happiness.