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FAST
SINGAPORE: Could you find a loved one if all he or she left you was a note saying, “Meet me there”?
Eight Singaporean pairs, from close friends to family members to long-time collaborators, recently had to do just that.
Among them: pioneering YouTubers Munah Bagharib and Hirzi Zulkiflie; architects Khoo Peng Beng and Belinda Huang, the husband-and-wife team behind the Pinnacle@Duxton; musicians Jack Ho and Rai Kannu; and Broadway Beng’s Selena Tan and Sebastian Tan.
Guided only by shared memories, one half of each pair had to locate the other, who was waiting for them somewhere in Singapore.
CNA Games
Show More Show Less
Those are now memories shared with the rest of the country in Meet Me There, a series based on a Nippon TV format. “Through their points of view, we see different facets of Singapore,” said series producer Liu Ziqing.
CNA invited one half of each pair to write this note.
With no clues as to their partner’s whereabouts, many participants — who had thought they would be giving an interview to CNA — were second-guessing not only their choices but their relationship.
Hirzi, 36, and Munah, 38, have been best friends for nearly 20 years.
But after retracing milestones in their history, from Temasek Polytechnic (their alma mater) to Hong Lim Park (where they had been Pink Dot ambassadors), Hirzi said in mock frustration: “I don’t know her any more. I’m going to unfollow her on Instagram.”
They eventually reunited at youth hub *Scape, which held the YouTube Fanfest 2015 where Munah said they had first found “a deeper meaning (in) why we do what we do” through their fans.
Hirzi first met Munah when they were students at Temasek Polytechnic.
Elsewhere, Khoo found himself physically and emotionally taxed while searching for his wife.
“My knees are killing me, Belinda,” the 58-year-old said after not finding her at multiple locations, including their go-to cafe, church, first home and the Pinnacle@Duxton. “Emotional clues are very difficult to find.”
The uncertainty extended to the production team, who had to prepare for multiple scenarios behind the scenes.
While they had been given a list of possible search locations and had to secure access to those places in advance as far as possible, participants went to unexpected destinations — and more places than could appear on screen eventually.
There was also the possibility that some pairs might not reunite. But that helped to drive the format. Tension built around the uncertainties about how long the journey would take or what would be revealed along the way.
WATCH PART 1: How well do you know someone you love? A desperate search across Singapore (46:56)
Even so, the rules were strict. Producers gave no hints, only neutral prompts such as asking participants to think about significant places in their relationship.
Some profiles tried to read the crew’s reactions for clues, so the team had to learn to maintain a poker face, said Liu.
In the end, Meet Me There is not about whether pairs arrive at the same place but rather what those places reveal, and how shared memories may shape relationships but are not always remembered in the same way.
Those who penned the note often avoided the most obvious choice. That was why Selena Tan, 54, was surprised that co-collaborator Sebastian Tan, 52, managed to find her.
Comedic theatre veterans Sebastian Tan and Selena Tan are best pals.
He had worked through the milestones in their careers — theatres, the Esplanade, past performance spaces — before arriving at a less obvious location: the house where they first rehearsed Broadway Beng.
“I find it completely amazing that he found it because I wouldn’t have found it,” said Selena Tan.
Parkour practitioner Gwendolyn Neo, 33, took a similar approach. Instead of Bishan Park — where her husband, Koh Chen Pin, had proposed to her — she chose Bedok Reservoir, a place they had gone to after she had bailed him out once.
He had been in trouble with the police after filming himself on the roof of a shopping centre.
“That was also the day we first held hands,” recalled Koh, 32, who is also a parkour practitioner. “Then (at) midnight we first kissed.”
Parkour couple Koh Chen Pin and Gwendolyn Neo reuniting at Bedok Reservoir.
Not all memories that were revisited were just as sweet, however.
For artist Eunice Hannah Lim, waiting for her mentee Foo Hui Wen at Tampines Changkat Community Club resurfaced memories of a somewhat fraught day when they were racing against the clock to complete a mural there before the next morning.
Lim, 34, remembered being “really furious” when Foo left midway through the project to meet some friends before returning hours later. “It was supposed to be her wall, and she needed to take responsibility and ownership,” Lim said.
For actor and content creator Dharmadasa D Dharamahsena, more commonly known as Das DD, his search took him to his childhood home in Teck Whye, where his parents got divorced.
“It doesn’t bring back really good memories,” the 36-year-old said. “But if I see my mother there, I feel maybe we could find closure in that space. Then we can remind each other that we’ve moved on.”
WATCH PART 2: Growing up with a single mother — Can memories lead Das back to her? (45:17)
But she was not there. And after nearly 10 hours of searching, he gave up. “This show should be Don’t Meet Me There, and I probably would’ve got it correct,” he quipped at one point.
“I felt I’d covered all my bases, so if I keep going to random places, then I think I won’t be honest with myself (about) what I truly think is a shared memory.”
Mother and son eventually reunited at Mediacorp, a place she said was important to them as his present and future were represented there.
While almost every participant took longer than anticipated to arrive “there”, many of them found the experience meaningful, according to Liu.
WATCH PART 3: After 30 years of friendship — Do our local actors really know each other? (44:32)
It was a rare opportunity for Neo to see her relationship with Koh from his perspective, she said, as they do not usually talk in depth about the memories and places they share.
“It’s really good to recall our journey,” Koh reflected. “This is a reminder also to form new memories.”
Even when participants failed repeatedly to find their partner, they did not miss the point of the search.
Rai retraced a friendship with Ho spanning almost a quarter-century — from Wala Wala, where they first performed together in 2002, to The Flying Squirrel, the restaurant they built, to G77+, where they kept making music via livestreams during the pandemic.
“This whole experience for me was quite special,” said Ho, 48, who watched the search unfold like a journey through time. “I think we forget a lot of things that we went through.”
Reunited at the Esplanade, where Rai Kannu and Jack Ho have had many gigs as the musical duo Jack and Rai, and where they launched their first album.
Rai, 47, added: “You can really go through a lot with someone, … more than what we even mentioned on camera.”
For 23-year-old professional wrestling twins Nadiah and Nadirah Hirwandy, their reunion location, Crescent Girls’ School, was not only where memories were made, but also where their identity took shape as they navigated teenage challenges at home and in school.
“This was where we both concretely said we wanted to do wrestling,” Nadirah shared. “Back then, it was just a dream. Now we get to come back and say we’re wrestlers.”
The meaning of this place was foundational for them. And that is the point of the show’s format as Liu sees it.
He hopes the three-part series can prompt viewers to reflect on their own relationships and see how everyday spaces across Singapore can carry layers of memory and meaning, even when they are remembered differently.
Watch all three episodes of the series, Meet Me There: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Source: CNA/dp
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FAST
SINGAPORE: Could you find a loved one if all he or she left you was a note saying, “Meet me there”?
Eight Singaporean pairs, from close friends to family members to long-time collaborators, recently had to do just that.
Among them: pioneering YouTubers Munah Bagharib and Hirzi Zulkiflie; architects Khoo Peng Beng and Belinda Huang, the husband-and-wife team behind the Pinnacle@Duxton; musicians Jack Ho and Rai Kannu; and Broadway Beng’s Selena Tan and Sebastian Tan.
Guided only by shared memories, one half of each pair had to locate the other, who was waiting for them somewhere in Singapore.
CNA Games
Show More Show Less
Those are now memories shared with the rest of the country in Meet Me There, a series based on a Nippon TV format. “Through their points of view, we see different facets of Singapore,” said series producer Liu Ziqing.
CNA invited one half of each pair to write this note.
With no clues as to their partner’s whereabouts, many participants — who had thought they would be giving an interview to CNA — were second-guessing not only their choices but their relationship.
Hirzi, 36, and Munah, 38, have been best friends for nearly 20 years.
But after retracing milestones in their history, from Temasek Polytechnic (their alma mater) to Hong Lim Park (where they had been Pink Dot ambassadors), Hirzi said in mock frustration: “I don’t know her any more. I’m going to unfollow her on Instagram.”
They eventually reunited at youth hub *Scape, which held the YouTube Fanfest 2015 where Munah said they had first found “a deeper meaning (in) why we do what we do” through their fans.
Hirzi first met Munah when they were students at Temasek Polytechnic.
Elsewhere, Khoo found himself physically and emotionally taxed while searching for his wife.
“My knees are killing me, Belinda,” the 58-year-old said after not finding her at multiple locations, including their go-to cafe, church, first home and the Pinnacle@Duxton. “Emotional clues are very difficult to find.”
The uncertainty extended to the production team, who had to prepare for multiple scenarios behind the scenes.
While they had been given a list of possible search locations and had to secure access to those places in advance as far as possible, participants went to unexpected destinations — and more places than could appear on screen eventually.
There was also the possibility that some pairs might not reunite. But that helped to drive the format. Tension built around the uncertainties about how long the journey would take or what would be revealed along the way.
WATCH PART 1: How well do you know someone you love? A desperate search across Singapore (46:56)
Even so, the rules were strict. Producers gave no hints, only neutral prompts such as asking participants to think about significant places in their relationship.
Some profiles tried to read the crew’s reactions for clues, so the team had to learn to maintain a poker face, said Liu.
In the end, Meet Me There is not about whether pairs arrive at the same place but rather what those places reveal, and how shared memories may shape relationships but are not always remembered in the same way.
FROM FIRST KISS TO PARENTS’ DIVORCE
Those who penned the note often avoided the most obvious choice. That was why Selena Tan, 54, was surprised that co-collaborator Sebastian Tan, 52, managed to find her.
Comedic theatre veterans Sebastian Tan and Selena Tan are best pals.
He had worked through the milestones in their careers — theatres, the Esplanade, past performance spaces — before arriving at a less obvious location: the house where they first rehearsed Broadway Beng.
“I find it completely amazing that he found it because I wouldn’t have found it,” said Selena Tan.
Parkour practitioner Gwendolyn Neo, 33, took a similar approach. Instead of Bishan Park — where her husband, Koh Chen Pin, had proposed to her — she chose Bedok Reservoir, a place they had gone to after she had bailed him out once.
He had been in trouble with the police after filming himself on the roof of a shopping centre.
“That was also the day we first held hands,” recalled Koh, 32, who is also a parkour practitioner. “Then (at) midnight we first kissed.”
Parkour couple Koh Chen Pin and Gwendolyn Neo reuniting at Bedok Reservoir.
Not all memories that were revisited were just as sweet, however.
For artist Eunice Hannah Lim, waiting for her mentee Foo Hui Wen at Tampines Changkat Community Club resurfaced memories of a somewhat fraught day when they were racing against the clock to complete a mural there before the next morning.
Lim, 34, remembered being “really furious” when Foo left midway through the project to meet some friends before returning hours later. “It was supposed to be her wall, and she needed to take responsibility and ownership,” Lim said.
For actor and content creator Dharmadasa D Dharamahsena, more commonly known as Das DD, his search took him to his childhood home in Teck Whye, where his parents got divorced.
“It doesn’t bring back really good memories,” the 36-year-old said. “But if I see my mother there, I feel maybe we could find closure in that space. Then we can remind each other that we’ve moved on.”
WATCH PART 2: Growing up with a single mother — Can memories lead Das back to her? (45:17)
But she was not there. And after nearly 10 hours of searching, he gave up. “This show should be Don’t Meet Me There, and I probably would’ve got it correct,” he quipped at one point.
“I felt I’d covered all my bases, so if I keep going to random places, then I think I won’t be honest with myself (about) what I truly think is a shared memory.”
Mother and son eventually reunited at Mediacorp, a place she said was important to them as his present and future were represented there.
A “QUITE SPECIAL” EXPERIENCE
While almost every participant took longer than anticipated to arrive “there”, many of them found the experience meaningful, according to Liu.
WATCH PART 3: After 30 years of friendship — Do our local actors really know each other? (44:32)
It was a rare opportunity for Neo to see her relationship with Koh from his perspective, she said, as they do not usually talk in depth about the memories and places they share.
“It’s really good to recall our journey,” Koh reflected. “This is a reminder also to form new memories.”
Even when participants failed repeatedly to find their partner, they did not miss the point of the search.
Rai retraced a friendship with Ho spanning almost a quarter-century — from Wala Wala, where they first performed together in 2002, to The Flying Squirrel, the restaurant they built, to G77+, where they kept making music via livestreams during the pandemic.
“This whole experience for me was quite special,” said Ho, 48, who watched the search unfold like a journey through time. “I think we forget a lot of things that we went through.”
Reunited at the Esplanade, where Rai Kannu and Jack Ho have had many gigs as the musical duo Jack and Rai, and where they launched their first album.
Rai, 47, added: “You can really go through a lot with someone, … more than what we even mentioned on camera.”
For 23-year-old professional wrestling twins Nadiah and Nadirah Hirwandy, their reunion location, Crescent Girls’ School, was not only where memories were made, but also where their identity took shape as they navigated teenage challenges at home and in school.
“This was where we both concretely said we wanted to do wrestling,” Nadirah shared. “Back then, it was just a dream. Now we get to come back and say we’re wrestlers.”
The meaning of this place was foundational for them. And that is the point of the show’s format as Liu sees it.
He hopes the three-part series can prompt viewers to reflect on their own relationships and see how everyday spaces across Singapore can carry layers of memory and meaning, even when they are remembered differently.
Watch all three episodes of the series, Meet Me There: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
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Source: CNA/dp
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