Peter Chan shares with us on Good Morning Yesterday this gem of a reconstruction of Singapore’s landscape through a 1971 B-movie, G. I. Executioner. While the show’s quality may be somewhat questionable but some of the more unusual landmarks featured on screen just aren’t there anymore today. Check out the old-style yellow-top cabs in this picture, along with the unusual bridge structure in the background. The picture below with the blue cab is of course how the same road looks like today!

According to Peter, it’s no ordinary bridge:

This was a Bailey bridge and was built across Upper East Coast Road to support the Phase 1 land reclamation in the Bedok area. It was a temporary steel framed bridge used as a method of supporting the conveyor-belt system which transferred fill material from the hills (between Upper East Coast Road and the Anglican High School in Upper Changi Road) to the sea off Upper East Coast Road. This project was undertaken by the Japanese contractor Ishikawa Jima Harima in 1966, as part of the S$50 million Japanese War Reparation to Singapore.

Upper East Coast Road at this time was pretty close to the shore, much closer than what it is now today, and while we probably can’t commend the film for its artistic merit, we certainly can use it to see how Singapore looked like as recently as 40 years ago – and marvel at the changes that has taken place since. Check out Peter’s recollections of G.I. Executioner Good Morning Yesterday.