Ah Girls Go Army is a 2022 Singaporean Dramedy film, which is a spinoff of the Ah Boys to Men movies. The movie was released in Southeast Asia in February 2022.
It takes place 20 Minutes into the Future where the Singaporean government has decided to conscript all Singaporean females into the military due to a low birth rate that the country was not able to recover from. To do this, the Singaporean military established the Girls' Basic Military Training Centre (GBMTC) where all eligible females are trained. One such group of girls are assembled into a national service unit known as Bravo Company.
The movie was met with criticism from critics and Singaporean Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) officials. But the movie box office ran a total of $2.5 million (SGD) as of February 2022.
The movie was followed by Ah Girls Go Army Again, which was released in Southeast Asia in June 2022.
Ah Girls Go Army contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The movie takes place somewhere in the 20XX where Singapore's birth rate has not improved, leading to low male presence in National Service.
- Artistic License – Military: The Singaporean military is seen with MARPAT- like digital camo instead of the all-green No. 4 camos. The pins on the berets are also different. This is due to the lack of cooperation from MINDEF.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Like the Ah Boys to Men movie, you'll hear a mix of Chinese and English in dialogue.
- Market-Based Title: The show's title in Mandarin is 女兵外传 (Simplified Chinese) or 女兵外傳 (Traditional Chinese). They both mean Female Soldiers' Biography in English.
- Take Cover!: Bravo Company gets trained on how to take proper cover during a gunfight. The instructors use paintball guns to shoot at them to help the girls learn how to hide and protect themselves.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone in Bravo Company gets a dressing down because of their antics, including fighting in the barracks. The CO has to remind them that the girls are in NS because they need to work together and face a potential adversary, but them conducting a fistfight does not help.
