Places Of The Heart: Film-maker Eric Khoo finds sanctuary in sepia-tinged charms of Tiong Bahru

Who: Award-winning Singapore film-maker Eric Khoo is widely credited with jump-starting the revival of the local film industry with his first feature film, Mee Pok Man (1995). It screened at around 60 film festivals, including in Venice and Berlin.

Through his companies Zhao Wei Films and Gorylah Pictures, Khoo put Singapore cinema on the global map with 28 features including 12 Storeys (1997), the first Singapore film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Zhao Wei Films also produced the early features of home-grown film-makers Royston Tan, Boo Junfeng, Jack Neo and Brian Gothong Tan.

He also spearheaded the White Paper that resulted in the formation of the Singapore Film Commission in 1998.

In recognition of his contributions, Khoo was conferred the Cultural Medallion for Film in 2007. In 2008, he was awarded the Chevalier de I’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a knighthood in the arts given by the French government.

In 2024, he premiered Spirit World, a fantasy drama starring French icon Catherine Deneuve and veteran Japanese actor Yutaka Takenouchi, which was chosen as the closing film for the Busan International Film Festival that year.

To commemorate SG60 in 2025, Khoo served as executive producer and creative director for Kopitiam Days, comprising six short films by local film-makers such as Yeo Siew Hua, M. Raihan Halim and Don Aravind. The anthology is streaming on Netflix.

“I am a foodie at heart, and sharing meals with friends and loved ones is the perfect respite for me. Thus, I would say the delicious food at Tiong Bahru is a favourite of mine, especially Hua Bee coffee shop, where I shot my first feature Mee Pok Man in 1995.

The mee pok and chilli are still the best, and I love the neighbourhood as I have fond childhood memories of its beautiful Art Deco charm and old-world ambience.

The whole place is like a set piece that belongs in my favourite long-running 1960s American television series, Twilight Zone.

Its charming five-foot ways, and the old shophouses selling anything from canned food to toothpaste that we so lovingly captured in the opening of my third feature, Be With Me, may have changed. But the spirit of Tiong Bahru remains with the echoes of birds singing away.

My mum would often take me there in the late 1960s after watching a movie at the Globe Theatre in Zion Road, operated by Asian movie moguls the Shaw brothers.

Many of my films feature Tiong Bahru as a location. I even dedicated an episode of Food Affair With Mark Wiens (2022) to my favourite Old Tiong Bahru Bah Kut Teh. I produced the HBO series starring the popular food vlogger, centred on Singapore’s diverse food scene.

Unfortunately, the beloved eatery has since closed down, like many of my other favourite eating joints, which include Beo Crescent’s No Name Hainanese Curry Rice.

After turning 60 in 2025 – the same age as Singapore – I decided to give both myself and the city state a present. So, I produced a heartfelt anthology with six talented local directors called Kopitiam Days.

The film was warmly embraced when it premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and many in the audience wanted to visit Singapore after experiencing the diversity of our country that the omnibus revealed.

I founded Zhao Wei Films in 1995, which released Mee Pok Man that same year. Since then, our productions have been screened at major international festivals, including in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance, Telluride and Busan.

Beyond directing and producing, I had realised Singapore’s film scene needed an official helping hand. I worked with some partners in 1997 to write a White Paper advocating for a government body to fund and promote local movies.

The effort was well-received, resulting in the establishment of the Singapore Film Commission in April 1998, which was created to help and support Singaporean film-making talent.

I feel that it is of critical importance to nurture and grow Singapore’s creative community.

As someone who is constantly dreaming and creating on a daily basis, the routine is simply the act of creation itself.

But even this necessary pursuit requires a deliberate sanctuary.

It is absolutely vital that the mind finds its rest, a gentle pause achieved through great food, tasty beverages and good company.

This act, seemingly mundane, is actually quite profound. It is what genuinely refreshes the spirit, which, for me, is the true source of all inspiration.

Once free from the modern pressures and anxieties that bind us, the internal process begins.

My mind can then sift through the immense flood of ideas that keeps me energised and alive. This relaxation is not an indulgence – it is the essential wellspring from which all my work flows.

But there is a bittersweet paradox in being a romantic.

While I cherish the old Singapore I grew up in, I find that most of its beloved landmarks, such as the National Theatre, old National Library Building in Stamford Road and the Odeon cinema, are now just shadows in memory.

These places of the heart have vanished.

This is why locally produced films are so important for us as a nation. They are the vital tool, the enduring phantom, that preserves the look and feel of these places that are no longer with us.

It’s the next best thing to having the actual buildings around.

So, I am pleased by the news that landmarks like Tiong Bahru will be conserved. Whenever I wander around the area, listening to The Beach Boys, savouring familiar food, I can easily recall the good times of the past.

We should never underestimate that simple yet powerful cognitive function. Nostalgia is the lens through which we keep our history alive.

And where new stories are waiting to be told.”