The New World (2008)

A father obliges a young boy and takes him to watch movies at New World, Singapore’s iconic entertainment venue of the 1960s and 1970s. The boy is enthralled, growing up on a gamut of film genres. He loves both the comedies and tragedies. He laughs and cries with the characters, experiencing their joys and sorrows, and even falling in love with some of them. The line between reality and flimsy film is marred even, when unwittingly he allows a merging of his life with what goes on in the film world. Oblivious to the real world at times, he is forced to face harsh reality with the unexpected death of his father. Distraught, his escape into his make-believe world also ends suddenly when he stops watching films at the New World.