Faan hei gong sum 2

Whilst I did enjoy the first, more concentrated, outing for our three couples, this one descends just a little too much into farce for me. The plot all centres around the wedding banquets of the couples who, bluntly, are marrying the wrong folk! As the big day approaches, so does a surfeit of slapstick comedy that takes a swipe at many of the daftest traditions of (any) marriage ceremonies, whilst also aiming squarely at people who exploit weddings. "Bernard" (Louis Cheung) and "Monica" (Stephy Tang) now run a wedding planning agency - and not very efficiently either. Their incompetence is just the tip of the iceberg as "Lung" (Peter Chan) and "Josephine" (Ivana Wong) get embroiled in a publicity grabbing fiasco and poor old "Meow" (Lin Min Chen) - well she just pines. Why? Well that's because there's no big brother "Steve" (Dayo Wong) here, and that throws the rest of the dynamic a bit out of kilter. On the plus side we do learn a little about synthetic shark-fin soup and luckily pop idol "Mark Gor" (Jeffrey Ngai) is prepared to get his shirt wet to divert attention when the predictable familial catastrophes all loom large and the enterprise of the scheme gets well and truly beamed up. There are a few laugh out loud moments, but this is just nowhere near as intimate and engaging as the original gathering of the six. Please let's leave it alone, now?

I loved the first one, it was funny, it had some really smart lines, it was warm, and the story flowed well. And thus I was disappointed at how far the sequel fell. It's trying to be too much and there's no flow to the story. For the same reason I don't think the original movie was successful just because of Wong chi-wah, I also don't think the sequel sucked because it's missing Wong chi-wah. The story is all over the places, the chemistry is fake and felt artificial. Yes I did laugh a few times in the movie, but I also kept checking my watch and couldn't wait till the movies over. The directors too ambitious and there's too much he's trying to tell with too little build up.

In the end I would rather watch the first dinner for 6 again than watch this sequel that's how I'd leave it at.