Live performances of all genres all over the planet are affected by the pandemic, so the more recent stage productions of Army Daze (2012) and Army Daze 2 (2017) were uploaded by the playwright on YouTube as a limited time, on-demand thing. I saw them days apart cos I wasn't crazy enough to binge them both in one go.
I remembered that there was an Army Daze movie back in the day, but I hadn't seen it (was it even out in Malaysia? I don't remember) and I didn't know it was based on a book and stage production.
The gist is that it's 5 guys from different backgrounds going through NS together (from narrator Malcolm Png's point of view) in 1987, with the sequel set 30 years after the first, where the gang reunites at a funeral (of all places) after losing touch.
The sequel includes some of the guys' spouses and kids, sons also in NS in the same troop at the same time. I dunno if I'm getting really rusty, but there were some twists in that one I didn't see coming at all.
My favourite character in this duology is probably (designated comic relief?) Cpl Ong Lai Tat (We Hokkien got saying ah...") in the first, and as multiple characters in the sequel (as well as his own mother). The name alone already crack me up.
I know that the recordings were also not exactly meant for public consumption: the audio and camera angles could be better and closed captions would be nice, but cannot complain so much cos free and all.
I thought it was kind of amusing that some of the guys from the 2012 production reprise their own roles 5 years later to play their 48-year old selves, but Hossan Leong plays older Malcolm instead (to be fair, he's played younger Malcolm in past productions, so he's aged enough to be middle-aged Malcolm).
For the most part, I thought both shows were kinda funny as someone who's not that familiar with Singapore's NS (some of the references totally went over my head), but it's probably funnier if you're more familiar with Singapore's conscription than I am.
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