Jo sok

2 Young sat unwatched in my DVD collection for over 12 years. Even knowing the cast and crew involved in it, I just never had any urge to watch a teen drama from Hong Kong that focused mainly on romance and family life. Of course, as the first review in my collection, I had to finally dust it off...

And my goodness - I only wish I had done so sooner. While a simple film, director Derek Yee (Shinjuku Incident) gives us a beautiful film that hits hard in many departments, from the great acting of its top cast, delivery of emotion, light hearted comedy, and capturing of real life that had my crying no less than 3 times during its running time.

As the son of the legend that is Jackie Chan, little Jaycee sure had some big shoes to fill in order to show he is his own person when it comes to having a film career. His debut was of course in the disappointing (although fun) Twins Effect 2, but with 2 Young we really get to see what he is very capable off!

As his first lead role, Jaycee nails it. His cuteness and charm plays well alongside Fiona Sit as his teen love interest, and you can't help that hope the both of them make it through the films running time without making you hate either of them.

Thankfully - they do.

Yee gathers an amazing cast to work with these young new stars in the shape of the amazing Eric Tsang and Teresa Mo who play Chan's parents, and the fantastic Anthony Wong and Candice Yu who star as hers. Regular face of many Hong Kong films Shiu Hung Hui co-stars as Wong's butler, and the ever popular Lam Suet gets a fun cameo as a headmaster.

I loved 2 Young. Maybe as a parent in my 40's with teenage kids, it was a little more relatable - but I know for sure that it never bored me or lost my attention for one second, and these days, that's a rare thing.

Overall: A new favourite of mine with an amazing cast, and the right amount of emotion without any of the cheese most Hollywood films of the same genre delivers!

Okay let me be honest. Under no circumstances would I have picked this movie up. I didn't like the art on the DVD cover and the plot didn't thrill me. The price however was under a buck so I figured I could risk trying something different just because it was cheap. Boy was I surprised, actually to be perfectly honest I enjoyed this movie more than I did most of the movies I've seen recently that I actually wanted to see.

The plot of the film has a poor boy falling in love with a rich girl from a private school. Things happen and they soon have to deal with the fact that there's a baby on the way.

The story is nothing new, however it doesn't follow the typical movie of the week formula. Sure there are complications, including a run in with the law because the girl is underage, but it doesn't always take the easy way out, indeed there is the possibility that after the credits roll that things may not be happy down the road. Still the film is very watchable.

The film works for two reasons.

First the writing of the characters is sharp. These are likable and real people. The early scene where the boy and his friends crash the school dance in order to find out the girls name is utterly charming.You connect with him and his lady love and are pretty well good to go from that point on. And as the film progresses you find you care about all of the characters you meet and you become interested in what happens to them.

The other reason this film works is the cast. Across the board they are note perfect. Then again most of the actors are people who have been working in the Hong Kong industry for years and are good in everything.

Is this the greatest film ever to come down the pike? No, of course not, but its a really nice, well acted little movie that odds are you'd pass over at the video store. This is one of those movies that makes it worth going off the usual cinematic menu and trying something different.