By Sarah Chang

A VIDEO clip taking a fresh spin on Dick Lee's classic National Day song, Home, has caused a stir online.

The seven-minute clip entitled Another Home, produced by Singapore Independent Films Only (SINdie), gives an irreverent twist to Singapore's key talking points in the past year. SINdie is a website dedicated to independent films here.

The pro-bono video project has garnered about 45,000 hits since it was posted online last Saturday. It was put together by a production team and cast of about 60 people.

Featuring Fly Entertainment artist Chua Enlai, the video contains spoofs of a roster of characters who were talking points in Singapore recently, including Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling and the full-time national serviceman flamed for getting his maid to carry his fieldpack.

The video also features the Singapore Democratic Party's bear mascot in a pair of swimming trunks, similar to those worn infamously by members of the national water-polo team last November.

SINdie founder Jeremy Sing, 34, told my paper he feels that Singaporeans are "mature enough to laugh at ourselves", especially after the recent watershed General Election. He declined to reveal the video's production costs, saying that the video was intended to "stir conversation", while stressing that it was not politically driven.

Chua, who plays the NSF in the clip, said: "It's like a review...of what Singapore got up to as a 45-year-old. It's like those videos that one has to watch at a wedding banquet."

There were mixed reactions from netizens, though.

Netizen Jacksonlcq said that the video "spoils the image of Singapore", while a few others said that it was embarrassing.

But there were also many who called for the video to be made official.

Mr Sing revealed that there are plans to get the video rated by the Media Development Authority (MDA) for it to be screened at local film and music-related events.

In 2004, local director Royston Tan released a 12-minute musical that satirised censorship in Singapore, and lampooned Ms Amy Chua, director of media content and standards at MDA.

Chua Enlai summed it up: "I think (the video clip) nicely encapsulates the tagline 'Uniquely Singapore' and we should be proud of what we've done in the past year."

Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: YouTube)



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