A Good Child[]

Main article: A Good Child

A Good Child (好孩子) is a film based on the life of Sammi Zhen. It is a 1 hour, 44 minute-long, 2025 M18-rated Mandarin comedy-drama about a drag queen, played by Richie Koh (许瑞奇), who returns home to care for his dementia-stricken mother, played by Hong Huifang ( 洪慧芳)[1]. He discovers a healing opportunity and mischieviously reconstructs her memory to make her believe he is her long-lost daughter instead of her son. Along the way, he also unknowingly confronts his childhood traumas. Director Ong Kuo Sin (王国燊) met Sammi Zhen while researching musical comedy Number 1, which earned a Golden Horse best actor nomination in 2020 for Mark Lee for his role as an out-of-work married man who becomes an accidental drag performer.

Trailer:

Movie stills:

Backers of the film included SL Capital Ventures, Byleft Productions and Clover Films (the distributor), in association with One Tree Holdings and with the support of the Singapore Film Commission and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). A Good Child marked the seventh feature by director Ong whose recent works included Lunar New Year film Reunion Dinner, Number 2 and anthology film Kopitiam Days. He was also executive producer of long-running TV dramas Tanglin and Kin.

Richie Koh's self-documented transformation into a drag queen:

The film marked Hong’s return to the big screen, after the then 63-year-old was nominated for Best Leading Actress at the Golden Horse Awards in 2022 for her role in the Singapore film Ajoomma (2022). Koh, 30, clinched the Best Actor prize at the Star Awards in 2023 for his performance as an intellectually disabled adult in the drama series Your World In Mine (2022). They previously co-starred in the Mediacorp dialect drama Whatever Will Be, Will Be (2023).

A Good Child was helmed by Singaporean director Ong Kuo Sin, whose past credits included Number 1 (2020). Ong also directed the local musical comedy film Mr Unbelievable (2015), a spin-off from a viral music video featuring local actor Chen Tianwen. “I hope we will have the film firmly anchored in the rawest emotions of human connections,” he added. A Good Child had a production budget of $1.4 million, and was released in 2025. Its cast also included Taiwanese-American actor Johnny Lu (路斯明), Singaporean actor-singer Charlie Goh ( 吴清樑) and Mediacorp artiste Cheryl Chou (周智慧).

In July 2025, the movie secured distribution rights in Hong Kong and Taiwan after being featured as the closing film of the Osaka Asian Film Festival’s (OAFF) Expo 2025[2],[3]. It held its world premiere at OAFF on 7 September 2025 before opening in Singapore on 9 October 2025 through Clover Films, which also handled international sales, and Golden Village Pictures. Taiwan’s Applause Entertainment and Hong Kong’s Emperor Motion Pictures released the film in their respective territories in early December 2025. The 21st OAFF, which ran from 20 August to 7 September 2025 was a special edition to coincide with Expo 2025 Osaka – an international exhibition in which Japan showcased its culture, technology and innovations. It marked the second OAFF of 2025, following its 20th edition in its usual slot in mid-March 2025.

References[]

Sammi Zhen's YouTube channel:[4].

Acknowledgements[]

This article was written by Roy Tan.

Sammi Zhen

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A Good Child[]

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