Mak Dau: Bo lo yau wong ji

It's nostalgia! With all the "streetscape" of the "good old Hong Kong". If you loved HK, you'll love this film. Besides, the film is poetic and much more like an art film than any traditional animated movies, such as Disney's. And I'm very glad that we finally have an animated movie that is unique.

The story is about "reality bites". And the family of McDull showed 3 kinds of attitude towards life, i.e. searching for the past (identity/dream/ideals), future (to be practical/ materialism), and to be stayed in the present. Technically, that's more room to improve, and the story-telling is fragmented. However, it was cleverly use the voice over to link the several parts of the story.

He's short, he's pudgy and his leg shakes too much. If there's a sweet, neurotic porker on the screen, it's got to be McDull – and what a joy it is to see him again.

If you've seen the first McDull film, then you'll be somewhat familiar with the aesthetic magic of these films – the external veneer of expressive cuteness, set within a photo-realistic CG backdrop of urban decay and construction. The plot this time is a little less straight forward; whereas the first film was an autobiographical backward-glance at McDull's life as seen through his sometimes-stormy connection with his mother, this time around the child McDull begins to uncover the real story of his father through his mother's attempts at fantasy fiction a la J. K. Rowling.

It's hard to comment on this sequel without commenting on the first as well. There is something that is happening in these films that speaks to the joy of great art. Perhaps it's the great contradictions that are alive in these films: the childish cartoon style that somehow carries a wealth of serious adult emotions; the biting satire of popular culture, and yet the sincere embrace of the follies of humanity; the overwhelming feeling of being lost, of being mediocre, of being erased, and yet the celebration of the little talents that make us unique, and the determination of the human spirit that refuses to collapse; the sharp sense of laugh-out-loud humor, and yet the quiet moments that bring good cause for a tear or two.

McDull: Prince de la Bun is certainly every ounce as good as its predecessor. It's a tale within tale, a bit difficult to unravel, but worth every moment. Congratulations to director Toe Yuen for crafting another complex masterwork out of such a seemingly simple set of characters. I hope these films get the audience they deserve.