We Can Save The World!!! (2025): A Love Letter to Finding Family in Strange Places

How often do you get to see a Singaporean indie sci-fi comedy on the big screen? Guest Writer Tan Yan An shares his thoughts on the country’s first independently funded sci-fi feature, We Can Save The World!!! – a film that is bold, inventive, and full of heart.

In We Can Save The World!!! (2025), writer-director Cheng Chai Hong makes his feature debut with a film that’s as scrappy as it is ambitious. First unveiled on July 17 at the New York Asian Film Festival, the comedy arrived in cinemas after a turbulent production journey. Made without government or studio support, it was pieced together through a 2023 Indiegogo campaign and private investors who had followed Cheng’s earlier web series Average Guys (2017), a mockumentary about a hapless production crew muddling through everyday shoots, and Neighbourhood Watch Task Force (2019), a comedy about residents banding together in their estate–both projects imbued with the cheeky, local humour and community spirit that We Can Save The World!!! expands on.

Image taken from The Straits Times

The story begins with Ryan (Noah Yap), a burnt-out officer at a town council, tasked with the absurd job of finding a missing recycling bin. Instead, he collides with Peng (Jun Vin Teoh), a disheveled man who swears he’s an alien and has lost his memories. Reluctantly banding together, the pair stumble across housing estates and hawker centres, pursued by cultists and government agents, while gathering an unlikely crew. What starts as an unwanted assignment grows into something larger: a quest about trust, kindness, and connection. 

Sometimes saving the world really is as simple as helping the stranger next to you.

That mix of the ridiculous and the heartfelt is the film’s charm. We Can Save The World!!! wears its influences proudly: anime-style gags, Dragon Ball Z references, millennial slapstick, and a distinctly Singaporean sense of humour. There’s joy in watching the absurd unfold across familiar hawker centres, void decks, and housing estates — everyday spaces that become stages for slapstick silliness.

Much of the film’s appeal comes from its performances and razor-sharp comedic timing. Noah Yap’s weary, deadpan Ryan bounces perfectly off Jun Vinh Teoh’s manic, unpredictable Peng — their odd-couple chemistry is unbeatable and carries the story. Watching them spar, sulk, and ultimately rely on each other delivers not only the film’s biggest laughs but also its most unexpected moments of warmth. Their dynamic is so natural that even the most absurd scenes feel strangely believable, and it helps that the performances are also buoyed by a vibrant soundtrack from Quis and Sulwyn Lok, which shifts from cheeky to epic with ease, amplifying the film’s eccentric rhythm. What makes the comedy land isn’t only the cast but also how recognisably Singaporean the humour feels. The gags swing between Singlish banter, digs at bureaucratic red tape, and bursts of sudden, specific patriotism that audiences here will instantly recognise — the kind that surfaces in our love for National Day songs or watching the fireworks. That resonance with our shared identity, paired with the cast’s irresistible dynamic, gives the film a communal energy that lingers long after.

Image taken from CNA Lifestyle

Cheng’s choice to write in English stands out in a landscape where most mainstream Singapore comedies in cinemas have leaned towards Mandarin, making this film feel both accessible across communities and proudly different. That inclusiveness really came alive on opening day, 18 September, at Cineleisure, where the laughter spread quickly and the jokes felt fuller, more infectious as they rippled through a full hall.

But within the comedy also lies a love letter to the community. Cheng’s film is about a ragtag group of unlikely people who truly learn that it’s about the friends (and alien friends) you make along the way, the ones who quarrel, fail, but rally together anyway. It's about finding kinship in the unlikeliest places, and about the scrappy can-do spirit that thrives even when society or the system feels a little bit stifling. By the end, you feel like part of a family, cheering along.

Is it rough around the edges? Yes—but that’s part of its energy. For a film born from crowdfunding and private hustle, We Can Save The World!!! proves that you don’t need blockbuster budgets to tell stories that matter. You need vision, humour, and the courage to believe in community.

If you’re looking for something funny, offbeat, and proudly local, don’t miss it!

We Can Save The World!!! is screening in select cinemas from 18 to 24 September.