The biggest surprise about ‘Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen’ is
that is can stand on its own as a movie. This is in spite of the use of the same
motley bunch of characters, and the same premise of a grueling course as some
kind of rites of passage that the boys must go through and most of all, the use
of the less familiar navy as a setting. The film is really ‘Ah Boys to Men’ in
an alternate universe. Characters from the army universe get transplanted into
the navy universe but with a few additional characters from both heaven and
hell.
The movie begins with reprising the structure of ‘Ah Boys to
Men 1’ – the ‘what if’ security disaster that necessitates the need for the armed
forces. This time, instead of ‘war’ in Singapore, it takes a leaf from the
recent string of hostage crises and creates a hostage situation on a vessel out
at sea. The Singapore Navy is deployed to rescue the hostages, offering the
familiar showcase of its weaponry and fighting tactics. Interestingly the
captors here speak with an American accent with a tinge of Bobbi Tonelli. We
are not sure what is meant to be taken away from this. As expected, the actions
ends with a sort-of cliffhanger, like in the first edition, except that the
narrator’s voice (Aloysius Jin) mentions that it is not a game. The film then
uses a lame approach of rehashing the old scenes from ‘Ah Boys to Men 1’ and
giving them a navy twist. The effect of this is somewhat uninspiring at first
but actually worthy of a few giggles. The most classic scene is Ken’s welcoming
home party. Which mimicks the one in the first edition. This is Jack Neo’s
subversive humour at its best – a horde of kids dressed in navy uniforms
welcome Ken home in an innocent round of cosplay only to be given an awkward
taste of the real Navy when they are ‘punished’ with push ups.
While the movie sticks with the ‘rites of passage in
training camp’ plot, the story is a lot tighter and more gratifying than the
previous two editions, demonstrating the fact that practice does make perfect,
though its not everyday that the box office warrants you to make a sequel.
Details of the enlistment procedures, training activities and little
non-plot-additive sub-plots are kept economical. Instead, the movie
conscientiously focuses on the exposition of the characters. Quite discernably,
the character backstories carry more weight this time, making their individual
episodes more compelling.
A few character threads brought forth the point. Lobang’s
character was thoughtfully developed in this edition. He is not just your token
‘Sim Lim Ah Beng’ but really a sensible survivor who driven by his tough
circumstances has become the street smart ‘Lobang’. Through the heart-renching
performances of Aileen Tan as the drug-addict mother (not to mention Lobang’s
endearing sister), we are transported deeper into his world and are able to
connect with a character beyond the caricature.
‘Black Dragon’ is a new kid on the block (though we also
notice the disappearance of some older characters and ethnic minorities. There
is a new ‘Ang Moh’ recruit though his role is negligible.) If you think
‘Lobang’ was the token gangster in the film, he is just a tame fox compared to
‘Black Dragon’ who operates a gang and fists his way through everything. The
script delightfully establishes his tension with his parents, exposing his
inner conflict and providing some back story to his behavior.
One of the biggest challenges of writing a multi-character
screenplay is connecting the disparate dots seamlessly, making sure the plot
flows while the individual characters are going through their transition arcs.
The movie scored in this respect with a calculated balance of the believable
and the surprising. One classic scene is the duel between law-abidding Aloysius
Jin and ‘Black Dragon’. For half the movie, the audience may have wondered who
will it take to tame this dragon, and Aloysius turned out to be the unlikely
‘hero’. Noticeably, Aloysius fights like a bull but still stays in character,
bawling to the wall after every successful punch delivered to ‘Black Dragon’.
Lobang’s rescue mission of his sister provided another resonant
point in the movie which gave it substantial weight without seeming too
deliberate. In an action-packed, high adrenalin sequence, moral dilemmas are
explored and suspense is kept over what will happen to the illegal ‘rescue
mission’ and the two rescuers. With the help of ample build-up to this point,
the dilemma is very real and without trying too hard, it begs us to ponder to
rift between what are rules and what is right.
Speaking about what is right in the movie, what is not so
‘alright’ is the excessive moralizing by various characters. The movie’s
narrator Aloysius Jin, of course, has the upper voice on moralizing, but the
Officer-in-command, the warrant officer, the sergeant and various voices from
the platoon also join in the moralizing chorus. In a scene in which ‘Lobang’
gets chided for short-changing a training officer’s girlfriend, he is told it
is wrong because of the Navy code of conduct. What’s strange is that it is just
wrong to short-change your customer. Period. No need for a military code of
conduct to tell you that! Another set of cringe-worthy moments is the
graduation ceremony which could be mistaken for a Navy recruitment ad, with
family members singing praises of the navy and its training and reminding us
why the hell they went through was necessary. If there was a prize for the
worst product placement in the film (the product placements this time were more
subtle in general), it would the appearance of KPMG staff at the graduation
ceremony saying how proud they were of one of their prospective ‘soon-to-be
auditors’ for completing the training, in unmistakable KPMG logo-emblazoned
T-shirts.
‘Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen’ or even the trilogy owes a lot
of its success to Jack Neo’s penchant for humour and affinity with street
lingo. While the series has returned with more breathtaking drone-shots,
slicker action and ahem, perkier physiques (from the ‘Ah Boys’ grueling
pre-shoot training), what connects these boys back with the audience is the
comedy. Comedy is used to diffuse moments, bridge the conversation gaps,
explain the unexplainable and most of all, maintain a certain upbeat tempo that
keeps the audience at the edge of their seats. In a setting where propaganda
can get the better of the movie and the movie risks being seen as a vehicle for
the Navy, humour makes this movie relevant to the rest of us who may have no
intentions of rubbing shoulders with the Navy.
Review by Jeremy Sing