Independently, a number of International films featured Singaporean actors and/or were set in Singapore, including Saint Jack, They Call Her Cleopatra Wong and Crazy Rich Asians.

[7] Even with the separation from the Federation, Lee's government throughout his tenure placed little priority on continuing its own homegrown film-making culture in preference to policies boosting its economy, which he later expressed deep regret after his retirement.

[8] The first fully Singapore funded film came in 1991's Medium Rare, which was based on a real-life local cult killer, Adrian Lim, who was hanged in 1988 for murder.

The same year saw the release of Mee Pok Man, the first full-length film made by an independent Singaporean filmmaker, Eric Khoo, on a tight budget of S$100,000.

Concerning a lonely noodle seller who falls for a prostitute, Mee Pok Man earned much critical accolade worldwide and encouraged more experimental, independent filmmaking in the nation.

Raintree Pictures would finance a number of local and Hong Kong productions in years to come, and are the producer company of the films of Jack Neo.

Subsequent productions, such as 2000 AD (2000) and The Tree (2001), also drew on Hong Kong star power; the company invested in critically acclaimed regional films such as The Eye (2002) and Infernal Affairs II (2003).

I Not Stupid (2002) was a peek into the ultra-competitive academic lifestyle as seen through three local students who performed poorly in grades; its acerbic social commentary marked another height for Singaporean films.

Homerun (2003) was a remake of the Iranian Children of Heaven in a local, pre-independent era context; it won for its young lead Megan Zheng the first Golden Horse Award for Best Newcomer.

An expanded version of an earlier short film he made, this 90-min movie on the fringe and drug-abusing delinquents used bold subject-matter and featured some graphic scenes with non-professional actors.

2005 could be seen as another mini-boom year for Singaporean cinema, with commercially successful fares like Kelvin Tong's horror flick The Maid, two Jack-Neo co-directed movies, I Do I Do and One More Chance, and less mainstream offerings like Eric Khoo's critically acclaimed Cannes opener Be with Me, and Perth, Djinn's dark take on Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

[citation needed] In 2007, Jack Neo released another film known as Just Follow Law (我们在政府部门的日子) which took a dig at bureaucracy in the civil service, as well as the lengthy procedures one had to go through in Singapore to get a permit for various things.

Critics generally gave it positive reviews, and many believe that it was because of the film giving younger Singaporean Chinese more insight into their traditional culture that made it a success.