10 Best Singaporean Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Singaporean Films

Ranked native cinema in Singapore’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. Ilo Ilo

   爸妈不在家 · 2013

   In late-1990s Singapore, as the Asian financial crisis bites, a stressed working-class couple hires a Filipina maid to help with their unruly young son, and the boy forms a deep bond with her that reshapes the household. Anthony Chen's tender, acclaimed debut.

2. 

   2. Ibu Mertua-ku

   1962

   A poor musician marries the pampered daughter of a wealthy woman, but the mother-in-law's cruelty and a cascade of misfortune drive their love toward tragedy. A classic Malay melodrama from the great P. Ramlee.

3. 

   3. 12 Storeys

   十二楼 · 1997

   Over a single day in a Singapore public-housing block, the tangled, quietly desperate lives of its residents — a lonely spinster, a henpecked husband, a strict older brother — quietly intersect. Eric Khoo's mordant, compassionate drama of urban isolation.

4. 

   4. Mee Pok Man

   1995

   A painfully shy noodle-stall owner nurses a hopeless love for a prostitute, and when fate throws them together after an accident, his devotion curdles into something disturbing. Eric Khoo's grim, groundbreaking debut.

5. 

   5. Apprentice

   2016

   A young Singaporean correctional officer transferred to a high-security prison is drawn to the aging chief executioner and seeks to become his apprentice, a choice haunted by a secret from his own past. A tense, morally complex drama.

6. 

   6. I Not Stupid

   小孩不笨 · 2002

   Three schoolboys consigned to the lowest academic stream at age twelve struggle under crushing pressure from parents, teachers, and a rigid system that has written them off. A hugely popular Singaporean satire of education and society.

7. 

   7. Wet Season

   热带雨 · 2019

   A lonely Chinese-language teacher in Singapore, worn down by infertility and caring for her ailing father-in-law, finds an unexpected, complicated closeness with a teenage student. Anthony Chen's delicate, aching drama.

8. 

   8. A Land Imagined

   幻土 · 2019

   A weary Singaporean detective investigating the disappearance of a Chinese migrant construction worker is drawn into the man's lonely, sleepless world of night shifts and a mysterious online game, as reality and dream blur. A hypnotic neo-noir.

9. 

   9. Stranger Eyes

   默視錄 · 2024

   After their baby daughter vanishes, a young Singapore couple starts receiving anonymous videos revealing that someone has been secretly filming their most private moments, and the surveillance becomes a chilling game of watcher and watched. A tense psychological thriller.

10. 

    10. Ali Baba Bujang Lapok

    1960

    This beloved comedy reimagines the tale of Ali Baba and the forty thieves as a raucous, anachronistic farce, with the great P. Ramlee's trademark songs and slapstick. A classic of Malay cinema.