Delightful ‘That’s the Way’ Is About More Than Disco

Imagine “Saturday Night Fever” set down in Singapore, blend in a bit of “Strictly Ballroom” and include a nod to Bruce Lee, and you’ve got Glen Goei’s delightful “That’s the Way I Like It,” a tale that’s sweet-natured, funny and surprisingly touching. It has plenty of star power in Adrian Pang, who is as affable and assured as Jackie Chan, and it marks a terrific film debut for Singapore-born, London-based Goei, an award-winning theater actor-director.

It’s 1977, and Pang’s Ah Hock is a nice guy whose dream of owning a motorbike is part of his yearning for a better life. He’s twentysomething, stuck in a supermarket clerk job and still living at home with parents who constantly make it clear how much more they care for his younger brother Ah Beng (Caleb Goh), a medical student. Hock hangs out with pals he’s known all his life, and their group includes the pretty and personable Mui (Pam Oei). They bowl a lot and idolize Bruce Lee, who’s already been dead four years.

Indeed, they’re off to see a revival of Lee’s “Fists of Fury” not realizing that it has ended its run and been replaced by something called “Forever Fever”--a faux version of “Saturday Night Fever”--which sounds like a movie set in a hospital to Hock. After seeing the film, Hock suddenly discovers disco, which transforms his life.

If he and Mui take lessons they can compete in a disco dancing competition, which promises more than enough in prize money to afford that motorbike. Pretty soon Hock is dreaming that “Forever Fever’s” John Travolta stand-in (Dominic Pace) is coming down from the screen to offer tips to disco stardom.

Wouldn’t you know that Hock, who now likes to be called Tony--as in Manero--and Mui are loaded with natural dancing talent? But no path to stardom, be it in a disco club or the silver screen, is ever smooth, and Hock incites the jealousy of the current disco king (Pierre Png) whose gorgeous girlfriend and dancer partner Julie (Anna Belle Francis) understandably catches Hock’s eye. A totally unexpected subplot involving Ah Beng, well-played by Goh, brings to the film an added dimension.

Goei, however, has already stood on its head the conventional wisdom about the pervasiveness of American pop culture, which is that it amounts to a form of imperialism. Drawing from his own generation’s experience of coming of age in the ‘70s, he instead sees our pop culture, as represented by the disco craze of the time, as an inspiring source of liberation--that in fact disco filled the gap left by Lee’s sudden death and the relatively recent end of British colonial rule in Singapore.

Disco for Hock and his friends represents an escape from conservative parents and low-level jobs and also a way of forging a new identity without losing a traditional Asian sense of responsibility to family. You can see in this film, as in numerous Eastern European films, how potent a symbol of freedom American music and movies can be to the youth of other countries. This is scarcely a new observation, but this consistently amusing and entertaining film from Singapore gives it a fresh perspective and a delightful new spin.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for momentary language and some violence. Times guidelines: There are some intense scenes dealing with the harsh plight of minorities.

‘That’s the Way I Like It’

Adrian Pang: Ah Hock

Pam Oei: Mui

Caleb Goh: Ah Beng/Leslie

Anna Belle Francis: Julie

Pierre Png: Richard

A Miramax Films presentation. Writer-director Glen Goei. Producers Goei, Jeffrey Chiang, Tan Chih Chong. Cinematographer Brian Breheny. Editor Jane Moran. Music Guy Gross. Costumes Ashley Aeria. Production designer Laurence Eastwood. Art director Andy Heng. Set decorator Mimi Hockman. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

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