SINGAPORE — Dad-to-be Christopher Lee is more than willing to take any parenting advice, especially when it comes from his on-screen father, Richard Low. And the veteran actor should know a thing or two, with three grown children of his own.

“I know you don’t know if you’re having a boy or girl yet. But If it’s a boy, you need to start fostering,” advised Low to an amused Lee at a group interview at the Orchard Hotel on Tuesday, where most of Filial Party’s star-studded cast gathered to promote the film.

“Listen, this is what I did with my son when he was a boy,” Low continued. “I brought him swimming, and when we were washing up, I looked at my son and told him ‘This is how you will look like when you grow up!’ Getting your son comfortable and used to seeing you naked is important in developing a close relationship!”

The pair play a hilariously “Ah Beng” father and son duo in director Boris Boo’s latest film, that centres on a reality TV game show called I Am Filial which offers a S$1 million prize for the winner who portrays exceptional filial piety. The film boasts a bevy of Singaporean stars, including Mark Lee, Kym Ng, Irene Ang and Guo Liang.

Clearly bemused by this rather unorthodox advice, the 43-year-old Lee, whose wife Fann Wong is in the third trimester of her pregnancy, confessed that he had similar hopes for his future child.

Flashing a cheeky grin, he remarked: “I wish for my children and me to be more like friends, instead of a strict father-child relationship, because there are so many more things to talk about if we were friends. I feel that the most successful people are those who are very filial. Filial piety should stem from young, and the people who succeed aren’t necessarily the ones that succeed at work, but also as a person in general.”

The actors seem to relate very strongly to the central theme of the movie. Irene Ang, who plays an overly doting mother in the film, explained that there will never be an even “scoreboard” when it comes to reciprocating the love of your parents.

“You will always ‘owe’ them, and never be able to repay them for the things they did for you. My mom’s favourite saying is always ‘I painfully carried you in my belly for nine months!’, and my reply is always ‘I know, and I’m going to be repaying and looking after you for the next 60 years!’”

Boo admitted that Filial Party started out as just an idea during a brainstorming session.

“Some wanted another Money No Enough movie,” said Boo. “But I felt I couldn’t outdo my masterpiece. Besides, I wanted to create something closer to the heart.”

He was so determined to create a film that wasn’t a typical Singaporean movie that, during conceptualisation, his very first idea was to create a movie akin to the Hunger Games. “It was an idea that was way out of the box, where the un-filial contestants would be immediately caught!” he said. “But we didn’t have the budget and eventually scaled it down to a reality show.”

But Boo’s biggest fear was having his audience refrain from watching the movie for the fear of seeing their own dishonourable deeds being mirrored in the movie.

“If, by the end of the show, my audience is motivated to give their parents a simple call or have a meal with them, then I’d have achieved my true goal in creating this film,” the director said.

“For example, in the movie, during the road accident scene, instead of helping the person in need, people started snapping pictures instead. I feel like that is a reflection of our own society, and I hope that when the audience watches the movie, they will have those thoughts in mind.”

Perhaps Low best sums up what filial piety truly is when he shared that the “most important thing about filial piety is to not let your parents worry in general”.