Sandbox (2025): How Can We Play in a Limited Space?

Guest Writer Gwendolyn Chan recalls her experience watching Sandbox (2025) and examines how the mockumentary manages to infuse even its more light-hearted moments with sentiment, to weave a narrative that ultimately forces the audience to confront a very prevalent question haunting Singaporean society: Why is it still so difficult to pursue and sustain all forms of Art in Singapore?

Premiering at the Singapore International Film Festival approximately six months after the end of its production, Sandbox (2025) is a light-hearted, yet emotional, mockumentary that offers an honest reality of running a niche stunt training business in Singapore. The film, despite its easygoing tone, is more than a simple reflection of Director James Thoo’s and Producer Anthony Eu’s efforts to spotlight the struggles of Sandbox Training Ground. Instead, it serves as a call to Singaporeans to confront a persistent issue: Why is it still so difficult to pursue and sustain all forms of Art in Singapore?

In this mockumentary, we follow Peps Goh (owner of Sandbox Training Ground), his best friend, John (Jon Cancio) and Min, John’s ex-wife (Oon Shu An), as they go through various attempts to garner more attention for their business. The film reveals the many lifestyle changes Peps has had to make in order to keep his dream alive, such as living within the training ground and using the public street taps neighbouring a construction site to get ready in the morning. Despite all these hardships, Peps remains steadfast, putting on a smile even when no one showed up for his classes at the Training ground. However, after one too many close-calls, when faced with an increase in rent, Peps felt his resolve to keep the dream alive slowly fading. A strange opportunity presented itself however, in the form of a Facebook post, with rumours that Marvel Studios has opened up auditions to scout for Southeast Asian actors to be the next Marvel superhero. This then led to the sudden appearance of a variety of superhero wannabes at the doorstep of Sandbox Training Ground (played by familiar names such as Benjamin Kheng, Estelle Fly, Nathan Hartono, Xuan Ong, Fauzi Azzhar and Aaron Mossadeg) who helped bring back the spark that Peps almost lost. 

We’ve all had dreams that seemed too big for us to reach. Yet, Sandbox Training Ground carries a dream so bold and through this mockumentary, quietly and convincingly, it shows that such dreams become possible when we continue believing in the importance of keeping it alive.

While monologues and lengthy declarations are oftentimes used to convey emotion or highlight pivotal explosive moments in storytelling, Sandbox opted not to and instead utilised  silence, its setting and a strong cast of (stubborn) characters to spotlight both their desperate call for the need to place importance on Art in Singapore, and their quiet determination to keep their dream alive.

With the majority of the mockumentary’s scenes taking place in only one location–the official Sandbox Training Ground training space – the film used this space to showcase both the conflicts and celebrations that the characters in the film experienced. By doing so, the training ground becomes a sacred space for creation, where triumphs and struggles of a niche art form were both absorbed and manifested. Sandbox’s space is an independent art space and I can’t help but think about how such independent Art spaces in Singapore are becoming less available. There is truth in the gradual loss of such creative sanctuaries, whether it’s due to the lack of funding or their presence was simply forgotten. The loss of our beloved independent cinema and art space, The Projector, as well as Singapore’s first independent contemporary arts centre, The Substation, have left a void in our local arts landscape, reminding us how easy it is to lose more and more of the independent art spaces that still remain available. Touching on my own experience as a Co-founder of [Working Title] Productions (A youth theatre collective aiming to empower tertiary and university students interested in theatre by providing a safe space to learn, fostering greater appreciation and contributions to Singapore’s arts scene.), my theatre collective often faced the problem of acquiring conducive spaces to nurture and showcase our craft. Having a permanent art space to experiment and create can truly reduce the anxiety that already exists within artists as we exist in a society where the arts is often relegated to the sidelines. I related greatly to Peps’ desire to keep this sacred space of his as this film’s setting houses all of what Sandbox Training Ground came to be today.  

Alongside the setting, silence weaved an equally important narrative throughout the film. As Peps was the main voice of Sandbox Training Ground, through the many moments he broke the fourth wall and was given the freedom to promote his craft, Peps often droned on into incomplete sentences and anecdotes. He was seemingly unable to fully express the true exasperation felt when he was reminded of the possibility of failure. The imperfection of his fragmented stories serve as  a reflection of how the uncertainties of the survival of his craft are met with no answers and solutions in the hands of its founder. The moments of silence that were littered throughout the entire mockumentary. accentuate the severity of Pep’s case, almost as if no amount of words were able to fully illustrate whether he should let go of his dream or believe that there is a way out of the difficult time he was facing.   

Another defining moment of silence in the film that stayed with me, happened in its later half, when Megan – one of the superhero wannabes that showed up to learn from Peps–was interviewed. Megan’s character, played by decorated actress Xuan Ong, is an influencer that was obsessed with documenting her entire life on social media. Initially, the audience was made to assume that she is just another bimbotic character meant to provide comic relief, a caricature of modern influencers, dressed from head-to-toe in colourful athleisure wear, prancing around the training ground. However, I would argue that Megan’s character is representative of many talented and passionate individuals in Singapore who are sandwiched between societal expectations to pursue a stable 9 to 5 job and wanting to devote their time into pursuing an artistic career such as a theatre practitioner. 

This was most evident in an interview with Megan where she was asked to introduce herself and why she decided to sign up with Sandbox to learn from Peps. Megan very enthusiastically jumped straight into sharing her passion to pursue acting to the audience. Her eyes lit up when given the spotlight to connect with the audience by breaking the fourth wall. Yet, before she could delve deeper into how she would want to progress in her pursuit, Megan’s mother abruptly interrupted the interview and sat in front of Megan, blocking her from the camera. Carrying much disappointment in her tone, she began putting down Megan’s effort into becoming an actress. She emphasised on her desire for her daughter to pick another career that she considers far more worthy of her time, such as a marketing career in the finance sector. Not once did her mother acknowledge Megan’s dream and assure her, despite knowing the  uncertainty she was feeling. Megan, barely visible from behind her mother, could be seen with tears welling up in her eyes, patiently waiting for her mother to finish undermining her passion. When her mother left with a heavy sigh, Megan shifted forward a little, seemingly trying to mask the hurt she felt and ended the interview with a dismissive “Yep. That’s me.” The audience was left with a silence to sit in, much like the silence that Peps was often in when interviewed. In these moments, when the director behind the camera and the audience were forced to sit in silence together with them, we too, are placed in their position to experience their frustrations of being misunderstood and overshadowed by a society that belittles the power of Art and its importance. 

Personally, witnessing this scene felt like I had my reality shoved in my face and Megan’s mother’s words echoed once again what is expected of me. The art scene in Singapore doesn’t just thrive on the existence of artists and the constant emergence of new ones. It thrives on the presence of independent and public spaces available for us to make art and do art. It thrives on communities that show up, collaborators that invest in the possibilities that art can bring to our rigid society. Most importantly, what keeps us going is largely unseen  — it is the compromises made to balance passion and expectations. Sandbox moved me to tears by reminding me what connects everyone that believes in the Arts and its importance is the quiet endurance we have and continuing to do what we do despite the echoes of those that invalidate our experiences.

This film embodied the risks that Sandbox Training Ground embraced when it began its journey. Premiering just weeks after a tumultuous time when the Sandbox Training Ground sought help from the public to save their business, this film boldly centered the struggles of sustaining the Arts in Singapore. Its refusal to romanticise the arts, to falsely represent the arts as a form of luxury, has effectively confronted us with its precarity. Caricaturised characters like Megan are basically amplifying what goes on in the minds of artists. They exaggerate to the extreme in order to destabilise the audience, making you shift in your seats after a good laugh at their silly antics and then slip into a moment of reflection, asking yourself what Art truly means to you. Failing to see that this mockumentary was not solely made to bring laughter and tears into a theatre, we have failed to recognise its call for help. 

Yes, we are entertained. But we are implicated too. The Arts scene in Singapore will only survive when we no longer push its presence into the margins and push for the importance of its role in our society to be greater recognised. 

Consider joining some of the spectacular stunt training classes that Sandbox Training Ground offers! And do catch Sandbox (2025) in our theatres later this year! 

Huge thanks to my friends from [Working Title] Productions and Venesya for encouraging me to write more! Thank you Kodi for being there to comfort me when I cried my eyes out watching Megan’s scene during the screening <3

Image credits to —Photographer Nicholas Lee (@nicholasxlee) and Director James Thoo (@jamesthooyc).