Latent Images - Film In Singapore is an exploratory effort which seeks to document the development of the film industry in Singapore over the past 80 years. 

  It takes the reader into the heydays of our local cinemas - Cathay, Odeon, Jubilee, Jurong Drive-In and more - and tingles the nostalgia within him, for these cinemas are no more with us today.  

  Along the way, the book provides adequate fodder for the researcher - student or adult - who seeks to examine the roots of this nation's entertainment history and the lifestyle of a generation of people who have passed on.

  The book continues with the investigation into the reasons for the film industry falling into the doldrums in the eighties - a period in which more than 10 cinemas were shut down and converted for use by church groups and musical variety shows. 

  It also reconstructs the reawakening of the local film industry brought on by the experimental feature - Medium Rare (1991), which led to the release of more local films, such as Bugis Street (1995), Mee Pok Man (1995), and Army Daze (1996). 

  The authors' interview with film director Eric KHOO - who won world-wide critical acclaim for his film 12 Storeys in 1997 - on his perspective on filmmaking in Singapore is also showcased.

  Latent Images then goes through the flood of locally-produced films, such as Liang Po Po - The Movie (1999), The Teenage Textbook Movie (1998), Money No Enough (1998), Forever Fever (1998) and Eating Air (1999), in the nineties - known as the revival decade.

  All in all the book pleases both the casual reader interested in discovering Singaporean cinema and the avid researcher seeking to dissect the anatomy of this nation's film industry. A plus point is the inclusion of a list of feature films made in Singapore between 1933 and 1999 in the appendix.

A Book Review by Raymond HAN

Latent Images - Film In Singapore ISBN 0 19 588714 X Published in 2000.