With Pink Dot just around the corner, let's a look back at a Singapore-linked Hollywood movie from the past that actually touched on issues related to LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender).

St Jack, based on a novel by by Paul Theroux, was a controversial Hollywood movie released in 1979 that also featured Singapore.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="246"] Book cover of the novel St Jack by Paul Theroux. Source: Wikipedia[/caption]

Filmed entirely on location here between May and June 1978, the movie featured locations such as Bugis Street, Telok Kurau and the now-demolished Empress Place hawker centre. It remains the first and only Hollywood movie ever to be shot in Singapore.

The film is set in the 1970s, when American soldiers came to Singapore during the Vietnam War as part of their R&R (rest and recuperation), which often saw them visiting prostitutes. Taking advantage of this trend, the movie's protagonist Jack Flowers, a pimp, tries to set up his own brothel in Singapore, which sees him clashing with local Chinese gangs in the process.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="736"] St Jack movie poster. Source: Pinterest[/caption]

Controversial aspects of the movie pertained to its themes related to sex, gender, and sexuality. It also involved nudity.

St Jack was the first movie with a sub-plot involving a gay Singaporean. It showed a gay Senator picking up a Singaporean man (called Tony in the film) along Orchard Road and then bringing him to his hotel room for sex.

Additionally, there were also scenes involving transexual women in Singapore, such as those on Bugis Street.

In another scene, two post-op male-to-female transsexuals were shown dancing nude for their clients:

Due to its controversial content depicting the seedy facets of Singapore, the Hollywood film crew had actually submit a fake story in order to get approval from the Singaporean authorities to shoot the film here. The fake story was called 'Jack of Hearts'.

Banned in Singapore

St Jack was banned in Singapore, and it remained so for 26 years, before it was lifted in 2006.

The lifting of the movie's ban came after the authorities reviewed Singapore's film censorship standards in 2002, which saw some of the old standards regarding homosexuality, sexual content, and coarse language revised.

Acknowledging the need for censorship practices to evolve alongside the changing times, the Censorship Review Committee said in its 2003 report:

"While exposure to diverse cultural values has brought about changes in mindsets, technological advancements in the last decade have spawned a new array of media formats and communication platforms, which have in turn challenged existing censorship policies and guidelines."

As a result, greater leeway was allowed for homosexual themes, and depictions of sexual activity and nudity.

St Jack was eventually given an M-18 rating in 2006.

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Top photo screenshot from Youtube.

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