Mou man tai 2

After seeing the first Mou man tai (or "No Problem") movie starring the Japanese comedian Takashi Okamura, I thought that I'd give the sequel a try. While it did have a few amusing moments, it wasn't as enjoyable as the first.

Not a great movie, but if you've seen the first one you may want to watch the second one...or maybe not. Knowledge of Japanese is helpful but not necessary for the slap stick elements of the movie

The movie itself was ok. There are quite a number of parodies to popular (HK) movies of the past such as Shaolin Soccer and Police Story. If you've seen a number of Hong Kong films, then you'll probably enjoy the movie a bit more because you'll actually understand the jokes.

Maybe I have been watching too many hindi movies, but the ending of this movie wasn't what I expected, which always makes for bonus points, in my opinion. Even though I understood neither language in the movie (and Iwas glad that even the English was subtitled in English) I still could see the humour in some of the linguistic confusions.

A young (well, short) Japanese chef loves Hong Kong movies and dreams of being a movie star. Taking dreams a little too far, he packs up and moves to Hong Kong. He gets caught up in a typically villainous plot to cheat a busty heiress out of her fortune. This leads to much action, but mostly a lot of dopey comedy.

The movie is directed by Chin Kar Lok and features a mostly Cantonese cast and crew. It probably registered on most people's radars because it has a reasonably sized role for Yuen Biao, who doesn't grace the HK screens much these days. It's an affectionate spoof of Hong Kong action movies, with a lot of general goofiness mixed in. The plot is full-cliche ahead action movie nonsense, but quite knowingly so I presume.

With Chin Kar Lok directing and a cast featuring top martial artists Yuen Biao, Kim Won Jun and Ngai Sing, it's probably one of the best assemblies of martial arts talent for a movie in some time. I wonder why it took Japanese investment to bring such a project about? It's not wall to wall kung fu action throughout the movie though - there's only a few fight scenes, but a couple of those do feature some real kung fu! Woo hoo! Yuen Biao shows some moves, but its clear that he's not in the great shape he used to be. Kim Won Jun on the other hand is fantastic - it's great to see him getting involved in movies again. Ngai Sing almost steals the movie as the cool villain, but doesn't really get to show much kung fu prowess. I'm sure he's capable of much better, and out of the fighters present he looked like he's in by far the best physical condition right now.

Although the movie is a spoof of HK action movies, action isn't the main driving force. Like many HK movies, comedy is splashed liberally throughout. This is where the movie didn't live up to the hopes I had for it - the comedy is very 'comic book' goofy slapstick humour, lots of "wacky" facial expressions and music. So not particularly funny, with some notable exceptions. I wished they'd played it a bit straighter.

I didn't enjoy NO PROBLEM 2 as much as I'd hoped I would, but I still think it's a movie people should pick up and see. It's not a great movie, but it's got some kung fu and some funny moments... these days, that's a pretty good deal. However, now that I've seen the original NO PROBLEM as well, I have to say that the first is a far superior movie all round.

Yumiko (Wakana Sakai), the pretty adopted daughter of a recently-deceased Japanese businessman, inherits control of her father's company; her uncle Kazuo (Shun Sugata), miffed that he wasn't left the business to run, orders a hit on his niece. When jug-eared chef Kensuke (Takashi Okamura) enters the wrong hotel room by mistake and knocks out hit-man Invincible (Jung Yuen), he is mistaken for the killer and sent to kill Yumiko. Instead, he falls for the pretty heiress and ends up vowing to protect her. However, she is kidnapped by Kazuo's men while Kensuke is preoccupied playing an arcade game with cop Daniel (Sam Lee).

Uncle Kazuo keeps Yumiko in a hypnotic trance, and takes control of the business, but runs into a spot of bother himself, when his gangster pals threaten to reveal his illegal activities unless he allows them total control.

Meanwhile, Kensuke teams up with two martial arts experts, Lam Kau (Yuen Baio) and Lam Doi (Candy Lo) who are hunting Invincible. He learns Kung Fu and attempts to free Yumiko.

A mixture of broad slapstick humour, spoofery and fight scenes, No Problem 2 is a disappointing film considering the talent involved: 80s kung fu superstar Yuen Baio manages a few fight scenes but is getting a little old for acrobatics these days; director Kar Lok Chin delivers the kind of dumb parody schtick I'd expect from a Scary Movie film; Jung Yuen resorts to mocking his character in Operation Scorpio; and Sam Lee… well, Sam Lee is as annoying as always!

On the other hand, Collin Chou, as gangster Ben, impressed me; he has an obviously strong screen presence which has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood—he has since starred in two of the Matrix movies and is soon to appear in D.O.A., directed by Corey Yuen. I was also impressed by Wakana Sakai, but for an entirely different reason: this beauty is easy on the eye and should go much further in the film business.

There is some fun to be had from working out what movies are being parodied, but at 104 minutes I found this film a real chore to sit through. If people pulling funny faces accompanied by silly sound effects makes you burst your sides laughing, then No Problem 2 might appeal to you. Otherwise, I would leave well alone.