Tracing the Birth of “Singapore’s own Bond”

Wildly popular in the 1960s and fondly remembered today as “Singapore’s own Bond,” “Malaysia’s own Bond,” and “Malay James Bond,” the Jefri Zain and Nora Zain films (1966–68) occupy a significant spot in film and cultural history. Yet very little has hitherto been written about these films. Particularly worth probing is how these films engaged with the global Bondmania and political zeitgeist of the tumultuous 1960s. It remains little known that many of these films were adapted contemporaneously from Hong Kong Mandarin James Bond films and that the Zain heroes were deeply embroiled in then–newly independent Singapore’s national politics both on-screen and off-screen. Bringing this history to light unfolds a new, critical perspective on these popular icons. More importantly, through examining the films’ peculiar Britain–Hong Kong–Singapore/Malaysia adaptation route, this article illuminates the complex geopolitics that undergird James Bond film remakes set in former British colonies. It demonstrates that, in the case of Singapore and Malaysia, remaking James Bond films was both a consequence, and an assertion, of postcolonial independence. The films’ on-screen manifestations and off-screen motivations signify a particular expression of postcolonial independence—fiercely independent, tentatively national—that is specific to their extraordinary circumstantial conditions.

Yeo Min Hui is assistant professor at the Department of Chinese. Her research interests include film and cultural connections between East and Southeast Asia. Her first monograph, Amoy-dialect Cinema and Dialect Identity Transformations in Singapore and Malaya (1948-1966) (我们的电影，我们的家：厦语电影与新马厦语身份的渐变 (1948-1966年)) (Singapore: Centre for Chinese Studies, Singapore University of Social Sciences, 2020), was published in 2020.