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Coming-of-age Movie 'Young & Fabulous' Reminds Viewers to Chase Their Dreams.

By Flora / 27 May 2016 (Friday)

The new local film to hit cinemas is a sweet, coming-of-age movie, Young & Fabulous, starring Aloysius Pang, Joshua Tan, Joyce Chu, Quan Yi Fong and Gurmit Singh. Opened in Singapore on 26 May, centres around a group of secondary school students who takes part in a cosplay competition for various reasons. On their journey of achieving their dreams, they develop a strong friendship bond with one another, overcoming all challenges and obstacles to fulfil their dream, and ultimately the need to have the courage to stand up for what they believe in.

At the press conference, producer and co-director Joyce Lee shared that her inspiration behind her story was because she wanted to ‘film something about chasing dreams’.

“I wanted to show how the young adults can continue to chase their dreams,” Lee said, but when she announced that the film was going to revolve around cosplaying, it was marred with negative comments online, mostly coming from the cosplay community.

She added: “When the news was out, there were a lot of discussions. Cosplayers were unsure if the show will turn out well, and whether the film will do justice to the cosplaying hobby. When I first learned about it, I was honestly quite upset about it. The reason why we chose to feature cosplay is because this craft isn’t seen as a mainstream hobby, and I wanted to use this film to change the mindsets of people about cosplay.”

The film is ultimately a feel-good movie that truly inspires the young to chase their dreams, and at the same time, a timely reminder to the adults to never give up theirs.

(Head over to our Gallery section to check out more photos from the press conference!)

For the three young leads, the path to realising their dreams didn’t come easy as well. For Pang, he only discovered his dream ‘three to four years ago’ after he took a long hiatus from acting.

“It was when I filmed my first shot after so long that I felt that this was what I needed to do, this was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” the 25-year-old actor said.

“Ever since then, I’ve been trying to improve myself in a lot a lot of ways - I put in a lot of effort when doing my ‘homework’. I talk to my seniors and watch a lot, a lot of movies because I’m always trying to understand the thought process of different actors and why they will portray a scene in a certain way.

In terms of sacrifices, it’s really about the time spent with precious people like my family and friends. I barely see my parents at home - they are usually asleep when I go, and come back from work - but I am trying to strike a proper balance now.”

Making her film debut is Chu, also known as Siyecao, the 19-year-old Malaysian singer who rose to fame in 2014 with her sweet music video of ‘Malaysia Chabor’ which garnered over 10 million views on YouTube.

She plays a social media addict, Violet, who constantly desires for attention. “Young & Fabulous is my first film role and to be acting alongside so many veteran actors whom I’ve watched on TV, was definitely pressurising… but I had fun,” shared Chu.

Chu and her character in the movie, Violet share similar traits. Like Violet, Chu has a large social media following and is considered a celebrity in her own right. But that comes with a price - sacrifices and betrayals from people whom she thought were her true friends.

“I’ve had my fair share of the good and bad. There were friends that I lost along the way, many whom also betrayed me. But because of it, I am able to see who are my real friends who have my back.”

'Young & Fabulous' is now showing InCinemas!
(View showtimes here)

Young & Fabulous

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Coming-of-age Movie 'Young & Fabulous' Reminds Viewers to Chase Their Dreams.