This hybrid, semi-musical documentary, combining testimony with song, was inspired by the early life and legacy of Chin Peng (real name Ong Boon Hua). Born in 1924, Chin Peng was the last leader of the banned Communist Party of Malaya, and at one point one of the most wanted men in the British Empire. He now lives in exile in Thailand.

The film is made against the background of the Communist Party of Malaya's anti-Japanese resistance during World War II, and its cooperation with the British. But after the Japanese surrender, the CPM wanted to take over the country for itself. Operating from secret jungle hideouts, the guerrillas attacked British economic and security targets. The British retaliated by keeping the public in heavily-guarded, racially segregated villages. No positive mention of the communists' role in history was allowed after Malaya achieved independence in 1957.

The Last Communist uses this historical backdrop, but is more interested in seeing how the country has changed (or not) from the time of Chin Peng's youth to now. It contains interviews with the people in the towns he lived in, and intersperses them with especially composed songs in the mould of old-fashioned propaganda films.