Before you shell out a hunk of cash to see Singapore’s latest tourist attraction, Universal Studios, perhaps you might want to take a ride down nostalgia studios and revisit Singapore’s first movie town, Cathay Gardens. Where?
Peter Chan illuminates this piece of local film history for us:
The first Malay colour film produced was “Buluh Perindu” (1953), shot on site at Cathay-Keris Studio. Swinging Singapore was the “Hollywood of Southeast Asia” for Malay film productions until the late 60s. Malay movie aspirants from the Federation of Malaya made their way south for the screen test. At that time Kuala Lumpur had not yet reached the level of Singapore when it came to film production, albeit there was Studio Merdeka Filem. Just as Hong Kong was the hub of Chinese movie industry, Singapore was the hub of the Malay movie industry. There was often co-operation between Hong Kong and Singapore where movie celebrities, like Yu Meng, Ting Hau and Peter Chen Ho, visited each other’ studios. When American movie stars visited Singapore they were taken to Cathay-Keris Studios. Our Malay actresses like Rose Yatimah, Fatimah Ahmad and Umi Khaltom took time for photo-shots with the visitors. Similar to MGM Studios or Universal Studios, Cathay-Keris Studio also had its fair share of attention when it promoted guided tours and autograph signing sessions.
So where was Cathay Gardens? The picture has the clues, but you should really read about it in Peter’s post on Good Morning Yesterday entitled Jalan Buloh Perindu; the place and the movie.
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