There is funny consistency in the films of Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan: All of the titles of his films have numbers in them. 3688’s title represents the number given to Xia Fei Fei as a participant on a talent show. In her late 30s, Fei Fei dreams of becoming a professional singer and she enters the competition for the sake of her dementia-stricken father. 3688 harks back to memories of the famous Taiwanese singer Feng Fei Fei, who enjoyed her glory days in the 1980s and passed away in 2012. Such remembrances call to mind familial affection and warm-hearted neighbors—things that have been lost in urban spaces carved by continual development. The loudly dressed and boisterous characters, as well as the somewhat hackneyed theme, help to create interesting ironies in the film. For instance, Xia, a parking lot assistant, starts to feel threatened by the introduction of an automatic parking system, and then the Internet totally replaces the radio. It seems that, even though everything changes so fast, it is still necessary that all of us experience the emotions contained in a ballad and the warm love of family. (Minah JEONG)