Tong’s long-gestating new film is a work of poise, as much a lament for the ‘lost’ Chinese-educated generation who found difficulty existing in English-prioritised Singapore in the late ‘70s, as it is a pining for simpler times and simpler truths.

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Kelvin Tong’s new film sits in that rare, somewhat neutral, interstice between ‘slightly mainstream’ and ‘slightly arthouse’.  It doesn’t quite have the commercial appeal to really succeed at the box-office but it also possesses little of the DNA that one might find in a more artsy work. 

As such, it finds itself in a promotional no man’s land—difficult to market specifically yet there is an untapped audience somewhere out there. As a Millennial Singaporean who is interested in history, I had to see A Year of No Significance. 

Set in 1979, which was a significant year indeed as the Iranian Revolution triggered the energy crisis (a point alluded to in the film), Tong’s long-gestating work explores a period in Singapore’s post-independence history when English became the prioritised language of instruction and commerce, leaving a ‘lost’ generation of Chinese-educated adults in the lurch. 

“There will be Chinese schools wherever there are Chinese people.”

Peter Yu (who has become the ‘face’ of Singaporean cinema this year with several feature film acting credits) plays a middle-aged architect facing the prospect of being an outcast, as he struggles to cope with an ailing father, a more favoured brother, and a wife who has left him. 

While Significance is a lament for the linguistic trauma suffered by many, it is also a pining for simpler times and simpler truths, such is Tong’s attention to period detail and the warmth of hearing more old-school Chinese dialect that has since faded away. 

The film’s unhurried pacing works in its favour and so does its sound design, which is more thoughtful towards characterisation than one might give it credit for. 

Tong has made a film of poise, and is surprisingly quite cinematic, avoiding the narrative and stylistic trappings of a more conventional ‘telemovie’.  I would have submitted this as Singapore’s official Oscar entry for 2024’s Best International Feature.

Grade: B+

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Trailer: