Draft:Dream Stall

Dream Stall (Chinese: 梦想小店; pinyin: Mèngxiǎng xiǎodiàn) is a 2026 Singaporean comedy drama film directed by Annette Lee in her feature film debut. Written by Lee and Kew Lin, the film is about the struggles faced by a returning Singaporean university graduate trying to save her parents' bah kut teh hawker stall, with Lee, Mark Lee, Ya Hui, Xixi Lim, Jaspers Lai, and Xander Pang starring in the main roles.

Plot

As a child, Enya loves coming to her parents' bah kut teh stall after school. One day, however, her mother collapses and dies while working at the shop, and her father works the shop solo. On his birthday, Enya makes some bah kut teh for his to try and states her desire to continue the shop's legacy, but her father rebukes her and insists that she focus on academic acheivements.

After graduating from university in the United Kingdom, Enya returns to Singapore and finds out that her father terminated the shop's lease and is planning to retire. The landlord Ah Leong asks for an exorbiant amount to renew the lease; after some consternation, Enya sells her mother's jewelry to fund the cost. She hires her childhood friends, Tammy for marketing and Ah Ji for waiting tables, convincing both of them to leave their stable but stifling jobs. Enya and her father get into a fight over her dream and having sold her mother's jewelry, culminating in Enya leaving home and living in Ah Ji's home.

Business gets off to a bad start when Ah Leong, encouraged by Enya's father, rents the neighboring stall to a rival bah kut teh restaurant branded with the face of famous actress Estella Tsai. Despite bad service, Estella's restuarant proves popular due to savvy promotional tricks. Enya, however, gets her first customer, Preston, who appreciates the homemade food. When Preston asks her out, though, she throws away the slip with his number on it. However, as business gets worse, the team looks for food influencers who didn't go to Estella's and discovers that Preston was actually a content creator and the only eligible one, known for his honestly and refusal of sponsored content.

After Enya digs through the trash to get back in contact, they go on a date, where she fakes interest in his favorite film, Yi Yi, in order to advance their relationship and bag a showcase video. After Preston's interview is published, business starts to boom and Enya's interest in Preston becomes real. However, as its popularity grows, she makes her business more commercialized and less human, leading to Ah Ji and Tammy quitting and the former kicking out Enya. She goes to Preston, but when he plays Yi Yi and she doesn't recognize it, he realizes her lies and kicks her out as well. Meanwhile, Estella's manager puts photos of Preston and Enya on a date in the media to discredit her.

Desolate, Enya returns to her father, who reveals that his inadvertent meeting with Preston earlier made him realize the importance of Enya's dreams and that he had secretly helped her by supplying handmade youtiao. Estella also meets Enya in the restaurant and vents her frustration of having to maintain her persona, divulging her regret that she passed up the opportunity to be with her dying father for her breakthrough role. Revitalized, Enya sends some bak kut teh, letters and relevant gifts to Ah Ji, Tammy and Preston to win back their trust. Ah Ji and Tammy agree to return, and the restaurant gets another boost after Estella closes "her" stall and promotes theirs on social media. On her father's birthday, Enya, Ah Ji and Tammy dine with him again. Preston makes a surprise appearance and offers to take her out again; with encouragement from everyone else, she hops on his bike and rides away with him.