Editor's note: Some images may be disturbing to viewers.
SINGAPORE -- A lust-crazed pig in turquoise underwear busts a move on a reluctant mouse. An army of rabbits wages a bloody war against their enemies the rats. In an act of supreme filial piety, a lactating lady suckles her elderly mother-in-law.
Spread across a quiet hill overlooking the sea sits Singapore’s strangest cultural curiosity. Built in 1937 by the Tiger Balm brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, Haw Par Villa was originally created to teach traditional Chinese values.
Over the years, the theme park has gone through several rounds of upgrading -- even getting rebuilt after it was destroyed in World War II -- but it's retained its whimsical and downright bizarre statues that depict Taoist, Buddhist and Confucianist folklore.
Across the park you'll see crab people and gangs of gorillas, topless mermaids and a tortoise and toad riding ostriches. Haw Par Villa would stand out anywhere, but it's especially odd in a small city-state known more for its polished and proper tourist attractions.
For a touch of the macabre, enter the “10 Courts of Hell” to witness the punishments for crimes both minor and serious. Rumor mongering will get your tongue pulled out; murderers have their heads and arms chopped off; and don’t even think about misusing books or wasting food -- you’ll have your body sawn in half.
Haw Par Villa's latest chapter has also just begun. The Singapore Tourism Board in August appointed Journeys, a local tour company, to manage and operate the park for the next three years.
The move perhaps prompted worries about the rundown attraction’s fate. Sky-high land prices, building booms and the drive for financial profitability here can result in refurbishment to the point of sanitization. Will Haw Par Villa suffer the same fate? Journeys seeks to put those fears to rest, saying it plans to preserve the place for the education, amusement and shock of locals and tourists alike.
“When Journeys tendered for Haw Par Villa, we were concerned that parties may have a commercial rather than a heritage purpose for the resuscitation of the park,” Chan Ying Loone, Journeys director, told Mashable.
“While we appreciate the importance of financial sustainability for Haw Par Villa, our primary focus will be in ensuring its heritage is appreciated by a much wider audience -- old and young.”
Check out this trippy music video shot in the theme park:
“We were amazed that something cool hadn't been done with Haw Par Villa yet,” says Master Race, one half of O$P$, the group that made the video.
“There's an overarching, alternate-universe Singapore that all the music, storylines, and characters inhabit, so it was more about imagining how the statues would behave if they came to life and got their crunk on,” he says. O$P$ is planning a sequel to the video, too.
Having cemented its status as the strangest place in Singapore, Haw Par Villa and its statues of amorous advances, furry creature wars, hellish punishments and support for ailing in-laws all look set to continue into their 80th year and beyond.
