''Number 1'' () is a 2020 Singaporean comedy-drama film written by

Jaspers Lai Jaspers Lai Yit Hann (born 7 March 1987) is a Singaporean actor and comedian. Early life Lai attended Nanyang Junior College. Thereafter, Lai went to Hong Kong to be trained in acting, hosting, singing and songwriting when he was 18, and wa ...

and directed by Ong Kuo Sin. The film stars Mark Lee,

, Kiwebaby Chang, Kenneth Chia, Darius Tan and

Henry Thia Henry Thia Hiok Hui (born 25 February 1952), also known as Alamak and Hui Ge (), is a Singaporean actor and comedian. Career Thia was a member of the main cast of ''Comedy Nite'' throughout its run, having the opportunity to work with both Ja ...

. The film revolves around an out-of-work middle-aged man who accidentally becomes a night club

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

sensation. Mark Lee,

and Gadrick Chin would later collaborate again in the future local celebrity and successful

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

Jack Neo Jack Neo Chee Keong (born 24 January 1960) is a Singaporean filmmaker, comedian and actor who was a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1983 to 2003. He established a unique presence with his genuine and relatable stories that highlight societa ...

durian The durian () is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognized species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species ...

movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

known as ''

The King of Musang King ''The King of Musang King'' ( zh, 猫山王中王) is a 2023 Singaporean-Malaysian comedy film directed by Jack Neo. The film stars Neo, Yeo Yann Yann, Mark Lee, Henry Thia, Gadrick Chin, Glenn Yong, Angeline Teoh and Jamie Chu. Set in Raub ...

'', in which Lee also portrayed a very similar role just like this film where both roles featured his characters looking for many jobs and work on them but ultimately were all failed attempts, which led them working as a durian seller with his family in that film and

in this film respectively. The film was released on 22 October 2020 in Singapore and released on 10 February 2021 in Taiwan. It received two nominations at the

57th Golden Horse Awards The 57th Golden Horse Awards () was held on November 21, 2020 at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Organized by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee, the awards honored the best in Chinese-language Chin ...

, including Best Leading Actor for Mark Lee, and won Best Makeup and Costume Design.

Plot

The film opens with Chow Chee Beng ( Mark Lee) performing at his company's annual

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

dinner. At the event, Chee Beng was handed his retrenchment letter by his superior. While they countdown to the

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

at the event, his wife, Marie (Gina Tan), revealed to him that she was pregnant with their second child. As

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (see also #Names, § Names), is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is one of the most important holi ...

approaches, Chee Beng was seen clearing out his desk. He starts searching for a job with the help of a recruitment agency, but to no avail. After multiple failed interviews, Chee Beng was given one last place to interview at while his recruitment agent advises him to sell his house and car for cash. He meets up with Fa Ge (

), the owner of the nightclub, Number 1, for an interview. Chee Beng was hired without going through the interview and Fa Ge brings him to the nightclub. After taking up the role, Chee Beng realises that he was working at a drag queen nightclub and hides the fact from his family. The Queens Brotherhood, made up of Unicorn (Gadrick Chin), Tiny (Kenneth Chia), Italy (Darius Tan), Money (

) and Pearl (Kiwebaby Chang) - are the 5 main performers at Number 1. It was revealed that Unicorn was an absent without official leave (AWOL)

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

after he was arrested at the nightclub by military police officers (

Maxi Lim Maxi Lim Jun Liang (born 12 March 1987) is a Singaporean actor. Early life and education Lim graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in interactive media design. Career Lim is best known for playing the comical and eager-to-please ...

and

Charlie Goh Charlie Goh Seng Liang (born 14 September 1988) is a Singaporean actor and singer. Goh came to attention upon the local box-office successes of '' Ah Boys to Men'' movie series by director Jack Neo Jack Neo Chee Keong (born 24 January 1 ...

). Chee Beng was asked to fill in for Unicorn, as Pearl would be unable to take center stage if they only had 4 people performing. Chee Beng reluctantly takes up the gig. When Chee Beng receives his appearance fee for his first performance, he decides to continue performing to pay off his housing and car loans. Fa Ge introduces Chee Beng to the landlord of the nightclub, Teo Chew Phoenix (Cassandra See), where she makes Chee Beng consume glasses of hard liquor, resulting in Chee Beng passing out. The next day, Chee Beng wakes up in Pearl's house where he finds out why Pearl ended up working at the nightclub. Gradually, as Chee Beng interacted more with the other performers at the nightclub, he finds out more about the plights of the other performers and the stigma that they faced in society as drag performers. One night, while doing their usual performance, Fa Ge accidentally played the instrumental track and as the song starts playing, Pearl hesitates to sing live. Chee Beng begins singing and saves the performance. Marie is beginning to have suspicions about Chee Beng's unusual behaviours at home. After their first live performance, the audience at the nightclub demanded that the Queens Brotherhood sing live instead of lip syncing, which results in Pearl giving up the centre stage for Chee Beng to perform the Hokkien cover of '

I Will Survive "I Will Survive" is a song recorded by American singer Gloria Gaynor, released in October 1978 by Polydor Records as the second single from her sixth album, ''Love Tracks (Gloria Gaynor album), Love Tracks'' (1978). It was written by Freddie Pe ...

'. After a live streamer, Happy Polla, was saved from choking by a viewer watching the Queens Brotherhood's performance online, the viewer announced that he was influenced by their performance of 'I Will Survive' to step forward. This resulted in the performance video going viral. Number 1 and its performers begins to gain more mainstream media coverage and Chee Beng oust Pearl as the highest paid performer at the nightclub. Chee Beng had a fight with Pearl and the other performers backstage after a performance as Pearl was unhappy that Chee Beng took over his spot as center stage. After which, Teo Chew Phoenix exposed to his family that Chee Beng was performing at the nightclub in drag, which results in him quitting Number 1 and selling his house and car. As Chee Beng and the other performers made up, he went back to the nightclub to perform to raise funds for the elderly home. Marie and her sister Judy (Caryn Cheng) catch him performing again and as they argued, Marie goes into labour. Unable to get to a hospital in time, the Queens Brotherhood and Chee Beng helped with the delivery, resulting in Marie giving birth to a pair of boy-girl twins. The film ends with Chee Beng performing while his new twins and his family are in the audience.

Cast

* Mark Lee as Chow Chee Beng *

as Money * Kiwebaby Chang as Pearl * Kenneth Chia as Tiny * Darius Tan as Italy *

as Fa Ge * Cassandra See as Teo Chew Phoenix * Gina Tan as Marie * Estovan Reizo Cheah as Mason * Emily Ho as Jocelyn * Gadrick Chin as Unicorn * Caryn Cheng as Judy *

as Military Police Officer 1 *

as Military Police Officer 2

Production, release

contributes the original story and is one of the screenwriters. Mark Lee is the second Singaporean actor to be nominated in the Best Leading Actor category at

Golden Horse Awards The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Taipei Golden Horse Awards () are a film festival and associated awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. The festival and ceremony were founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Repub ...

, after

Gurmit Singh Gurmit Singh (born 24 March 1965; ; ) is a Singaporean actor, comedian and host. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1994 to 2014. He is best known for his role as the titular character Phua Chu Kang in ''Phua Chu Kang Pte Lt ...

for ''

Just Follow Law ''Just Follow Law'' () is a 2007 Singaporean comedy film directed by Jack Neo. The film also features a sing-along session near to the end of the film and everyone was singing the theme song called ''A Worthy and Useful Person'' (有用的人) from ...

'' in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Accolades

The film received two nominations at the

. It won one award for Best Costume & Makeup Design.

Sequel

Filming of the sequel recently wrapped in early August 2023. Filming locations took place in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Reports show that all cast members will be back to reprise their roles, including

and Cassandra See.

and

would not be reprising their roles in the sequel, as they only made a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

as Military Police Officers in this film. Also, Kenneth Chia isn't reprising his role as Tiny. The title of the sequel is known as ''Number 2'', which was released during the

period in 2025.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, title=Number 2, 35405436 2020 films Singaporean comedy-drama films Drag (entertainment)-related films 2020 comedy-drama films Singaporean LGBTQ-related films LGBTQ-related comedy-drama films 2020 LGBTQ-related films