Hooray for cultural imperialism! The first film in recent Singapore history to find commercial life outside the country, That's The Way I Like It is a giddy celebration of dominant American trends and values, made in "Singlish"—a dialect that sounds conspicuously like badly dubbed English—for maximum crossover appeal. A happy, emasculated remake of Saturday Night Fever, Glen Goei's slapped-together musical is aimed at those who like their retro disco without all that boring working-class-desperation stuff. As its would-be John Travolta, kung-fu fanatic Adrian Pang falls asleep during the dramatic sections of "Forever Fever," but he's utterly captivated by the dance sequences, which inspire him to take lessons. Like his new hero, Pang longs to escape his (mildly) troubled family life and spends his hours after work gazing at an expensive motorcycle while a second-rate cover of "Everybody's Talkin'" plays in his head. A disco competition with a $5,000 grand prize, more than enough to pay for the bike, gives him a chance to show off his new moves. Save for one scene in which it lifts the classic "What's a mook?" exchange from Mean Streets, That's The Way I Like It plunders nearly every character, song, plot twist, and neon floor light from Saturday Night Fever, but it's more revealing in what it doesn't steal. For the sake of a breezy, insubstantial tone, Goei skips over bleaker moments such as the nervy detours to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge or the harrowing backseat rape. What he fails to understand is that despair, not disco, is the engine driving the raw, youthful sensuality in Saturday Night Fever. Without it, That's The Way I Like It becomes another stale foray into '70s kitsch.