By now, you’ve probably heard of Jack Neo’s new cinematic series Ah Girls Go Army — a spin-off from the popular series Ah Boys To Men. Though the films have received multiple bad reviews by netizens even before their releases, they show an interesting perspective on what life would be like if Gen Z females enlisted in the Army.
Here are 11 facts about the two Ah Girls Go Army films so far, with the sequel now screening in a cinema near you.
In an interview with a local newspaper, director Jack Neo addressed the haters by highlighting that the movie created about 400 job opportunities, consisting of roles for cast members and the production crew.
He also confidently stated that he believes the sequel will do well even though he was worried that the strong criticism from the first movie would affect the turnout for the second one. With a recession looming and an unstable economy, perhaps we should appreciate how the movie has revived the local film scene.
If you spot a familiar face in the movie, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. Mrbrown, a local Singaporean blogger who doesn’t usually make an appearance in movies or TV shows, agreed to get involved in Ah Girls Go Army Again thanks to the film’s producer.
Based on an interview with AsiaOne, The 52-year-old even went beyond the script and added his own ideas to his scene of scolding the recruits while they snacked on tidbits, making his character funnier to watch.
The main cast members commended Mrbrown for his good improvisation skills and adaptability – the actresses even mentioned in an interview that Mrbrown carried a film camera around to capture the BTS of the production. You can check out his photo essay here.
Actor Glenn Yong, who plays Sergeant Chow in the films, shared in an interview with AsiaOne that he “almost couldn’t celebrate Father’s Day” after being lifted, fireman-style, by the girls for a scene.
In the scene, the girls had to fireman-lift Sergeant Chow as he had fainted and couldn’t move. The placement of the girls’ shoulders and arms were resting near his stomach and sensitive areas, making the actor feel very vulnerable.
Since the girls also had to run in the scene, it caused the pain to be even more intense. In an interview with a local news site, Glenn admits that he was even trying his best not to yell out in pain.
Despite the bad reviews and hate it received online, the first movie managed to hit $2.5 million at the box office, making it the top-grossing local film since the outbreak of the pandemic — a truly impressive feat for a movie that was constantly under the scrutiny of the public.
Director Jack Neo is keeping an open mind and hopes for the second movie, Ah Girls Go Army Again, to hit an even higher amount.
One person not shy to show their support for the series is none other than Ah Boys To Men actor, Tosh Zhang. He took it to Facebook earlier this year to express his happiness for the first film hitting $1 million at the box office.
In his congratulatory post, Tosh addressed the haters by saying that the achievement shows that despite how loud the online haters might have seemed, “silent supporters” have been there since the first Ah Boys To Men movie.
The post resulted in mixed responses ranging from people slandering the movie for its poorly written storyline to supporters cheering the actor on for standing up to the haters.
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Since the films weren’t supported by the Singapore Armed Forces, the writers had to create their own version of Basic Military Training (BMT), according to AsiaOne. None of the actresses had any military experience, so the production team got a few former soldiers and physical training instructors to train the girls at the boot camp.
Other than drills, what was likely the most exciting part for the cast was to handle rifles. Even though the weapons weren’t real, the props were very realistic and heavy which added a lot of weight to their strenuous “training” and filming.
“Everyone was very excited but once they got the rifle, they wondered how tough it would be for a soldier to carry such a heavy weapon during training. But I think our Singapore soldiers are already very used to it”, Jack Neo shared.
Forget about traditional movie auditions. Director Jack Neo wanted to cast fresh faces, aged 18-30, to play some of the female recruits in the movie, which was definitely an apt way as the film’s plot mainly surrounded the idea of female Gen Zs enlisting into the Army,
The casting required all participants to post a video of themselves portraying any character on their social media pages. Most, if not all, of the main cast members had an online audition to get the role!
If you haven’t already seen the many audition clips that surfaced on your TikTok FYP, it’s time you do as some of the clips are pretty entertaining and creative. In fact, Kelly Kimberly Cheong, who plays Amanda Ong, posted a Facebook Video auditioning to be the “Strong Silent Recruit” that went viral.
Riding on the NFT trend, the movie also released its very own NFTs featuring a colourful series of 8-bit illustrations of different types of soldiers in the Army.
The “Ah Girls Go Army” NFTs came free with each purchase of two advanced movie tickets and first access to future “Ah Girls Go Army” movie-related events and merchandise were provided to the owners of these NFTs. The owners of those NFTs will also receive advance notice of subsequent NFT drops in the collection.
Veracia Yong, who plays recruit Peh Mani, revealed to AsiaOne that she actually fainted twice during the filming of the movie due to heat injury.
The first time was when they were filming an outfield scene, where the characters were in full army gear under the hot sun. According to her co-stars, even though Veracia already looked pale, she pushed on with filming because nobody had asked for a break.
The second time Veracia fainted was ironically because she laughed too much. The girls were rehearsing a scene under the sun in the forest when fellow cast member, Kele, was trying to pronounce an English word. Her pronunciation made the cast laugh and Veracia was left breathless after laughing too hard that she had to take time to recollect herself.
If you’re looking to savour something while binge-watching the movies, snack-lovers can get this Ah Girls Go Army Again snack pack for $11.90 on Pandamart, that includes seaweed, Oreo biscuits and a bottle of classic Milo.
Spot Pau-Pau wearing a pink beret with a cheeky wink on its face on the free tote bag!
Unlike the wild boar scene in Ah Boys To Men 2, the encounter during the AGGAA filming was 100% real. Cast members had to make a mental note to avoid and keep a wide distance from the wild boars, in order not to trigger an attack. Yikes.
Judge all you want, but these facts show that the film series has achieved a lot despite the short timeframe and turnaround. Though the storylines may not be as impactful as some might expect, we can still show some appreciation to the cast and production staff for their efforts.
If this article helped pique your interest, it won’t hurt to check out Ah Girls Go Army Again with your friends for a quick laugh.
Cover image courtesy of mm2 Entertainment
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