PUBLISHED ONAugust 27, 2025 7:42 AMBYYeo Shu HuiIt is said that art imitates life, and such is the case for local actress Yvonne Lim, who returned to Singapore after living in Taipei for a decade to play a returning Singaporean in the SG60 film Kopitiam Days.
The 48-year-old told AsiaOne in an interview recently: "When I came back to Singapore, I didn't know that I'll be in this SG60 film, and this story just happened to be about family coming back to visit parents... This short resonates a lot with me because I'm also moving back home after 10 years and bringing my kids along. This is the first time they are really staying here."
Kopitiam Days, which is supported by Infocomm Media Development Authority and Singapore Film Commission, is an anthology of six shorts which features Singapore in the past, present and future. Each of the stories is independent, but the kopitiam Heap Seng Leong is a common place in all the characters' lives.
The film is produced by local director Eric Khoo, who is the film's creative director and executive producer, and Lim Teck, managing director of Clover Films.
Directed by local director Ong Kuo Sin, The Morning Call tells the story of the blossoming relationship between May (Jennifer Wilkinson) and her grandfather Lim (Yang Shi Bin) when she returns to Singapore with her mother Chui Hoon (Yvonne) and accidentally loses the orange payphone from his kopitiam.
Yvonne, who considered the short as a "welcome gift" for her return, shared: "This year has been really very good to me... Coming back home after 10 years, I felt so welcomed by everyone... I felt very loved and welcomed on the streets as well, where people would approach me and say, 'Welcome home, it's good to see you back home and we love your works.' It means so much to me.
"It touches me so much that I felt I need to do a lot more to give back to them. So right now, it's just about giving back to people who have supported me all these years. It's not about how successful or how much I want to climb (up the career ladder) but really giving back. If I can contribute something, be it a small role, if it has a meaning to it, I would do it."
The Morning Call is ultimately a story about bonding through communication and Kuo Sin hopes audiences would be able to reflect on the importance of verbal communication, especially with our loved ones.
The 51-year-old, who directed Golden Horse Award-winning film Number 1 (2020), said: "A lot of times, do we actually put in the effort to communicate? Maybe there are a lot of expectations, where you assume people will understand. But until you open your mouth to say what you really want, people will have to second-guess.
"One important message [in this short] is don't assume. Just talk it out if you are unsure of what the other person is feeling and you might get a better answer straight, rather than spending days or even years trying to guess."
Coming from a family where her parents do not openly communicate their affection, Yvonne makes it a point now to create a bond with her own children — eight-year-old Alexa and Alex Junior, 10, whom she shares with her husband Alex Tien.
She said: "We are more outspoken with each other. For example, recently, I was going through (school) assessments with my son and asked him, 'Why are you stubborn? You don't even want to say these words.'
"Then he told me, 'Mummy, you are also very stubborn.' I kind of laughed inside my heart because I think that's funny and he is outspoken, and I liked it. I like that he is sharing what he feels instead of keeping it in his heart."
Bonding through communication also happened on the set of The Morning Call, where Yvonne established a good relationship with rookie actress Jennifer, starting from their first day of filming.
"I did her makeup. She has very sensitive skin like me and it's good that we are both pretty fair, so what I'm using, she can use. We were running out of time to go on set, so I just took out my makeup case and put on her makeup. She has a beautiful face, so I didn't have to do much, just a little touch-ups here and there, and she was good to go," she revealed.
That's not all, as Yvonne also made the 15-year-old her first kaya toast.
She elaborated: "When she told me she had never tried kaya toast, I said, 'Huh, how could you not have tried it before? Let me make one for you.' So, I decided to help myself in the kopitiam [we filmed in] ... When Jennifer took the first bite, she loved it and, in the end, I made another one for her."
"It was really that good," Jennifer laughed.
Kopitiam Days will be shown through community screenings at the following locations and dates:
More information will be made available on the respective Facebook pages of the venues. The film will also be subsequently released on streaming platforms.
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