Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Great Film overall

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I had difficulty rating this film, as my left and right brain have been squabbling for the past few days telling me what rating to give. The logical choice will be to give this a full mark, or almost full mark. The cast were BRILLIANT. Besides charming Louis Koo, and handsome Daniel Wu with the female lead Gao Yuanyuan from the first film in 2011, now there's Vic Chou (My first secondary school crush when he appeared in my life as Hua Ze Lei from Meteor Garden :P) and Miriam Yeung (my role model for acting after watching her Love Undercover in 2002). You know you can't go wrong when the cast are so good-looking and great with their acting!Besides, this is one of the rare films where the CGI was pretty natural, especially the octopus, so much that me and my friend wonder if it's a CGI octopus or not! Moreover, the film played to its strength and made clever use of the first film for the flashbacks. No real worries for those who did not watch the first film, but of course, having watched that will always be advantageous to know the characters beforehand!I like how the characters were introduced, showing how there is every reason for an identity mix-up, and well, just like the classic romance film "Turn Left Turn Right" (左走向右走), coincidentally by the same directors, this kind of situation is very possible in the real life! That's basically my left brain talking.My right brain, on the other brain hand, was obsessively upset for many days after watching it. It actually took me some time to prepare myself (emotionally) to write this review. I love the first film. When Chen Zixin chose "Martian" Fang Qihong over "Earthling Cheung Shen Ren, I was overjoy. A man who two-times and sleeps around is definitely not someone a girl should marry. So when Part 2 is out, I kinda expected what's going to happen.Yes, as usual, "true love"-or so they say, conquer everything (and Yes, I'm feeling sour, because my favourite Martian guy was dumped!) This made completely and utterly no-sense here, why any women could believe that Shen Ren would stop his philandering behaviour, especially when Chen Zixin witnessed everything across the building herself how Shen Ren continued his usual post-it notes and magic tricks with different women right after their breakup or even the riotous mass-"surprise" birthday celebrations all his girlfriends gave him. True love?While some might find the first film simple, just like their theme song "Love is Simple" (爱很简 单), the sequel's trailer got me totally confused yet excited. Together with two more classic songs, the film introduced Miriam Yeung who was one of my favourite Hong Kong actress for her numerous comedy-romance films, and Vic Chou! It's such an odd combination that I will never have imagined them together. Yet, their chemistry in the film was uniquely sweet. The handyman who's always there when the girl needs him, he's like the romantic-version of "Da Ren Ge" （大仁哥）. The amazing quadrangular relationship made it super confusing to explain verbally, but ...Read on: http://goo.gl/J6lhRv

Over post-it notes exchanged across the office windows of two adjacent towers in the heart of Hong Kong's financial district, Louis Koo's dashingly handsome but hopelessly philandering wealth management CEO Cheung Shen Ran pursued the pretty and vivacious financial analyst Chen Zixin. But Zixin was also simultaneously courted by the handsome architect Fang Qihong (Daniel Wu), who was dependable, faithful, committed and basically the exact opposite of Shen Ran.Teasing their audience right to the very end, the dynamic writing- directing duo of Johnnie To and Wai Kar Fai eventually let their female protagonist pick the safer choice. It is one year later where this sequel opens that we are reunited with Shen Ran and Zixin, the latter just weeks away from her impending nuptials with Qihong. The former? Well, he's as much a flirt as before, but as we find out soon after, he is actually still very much hung up on Zixin, even going to the extent of renting the apartment which she used to stay.Johnnie To's success in his home territory has always been with crowd-pleasing rom-coms like 'Needing Me, Needing You' and 'Love On A Diet'. This sequel, as well as its predecessor, fits in squarely in many ways – it is frothy, light-hearted, and filled with zany moments that few like To/ Kar Fai will dare to pull off and do so with aplomb. And indeed, To establishes this with a hilarious opening sequence that deserves praise in itself for being able to juggle so many characters at the same time.There is Zixin, who is trying out her wedding dress in a bridal shop and waiting for her brother Paul (Vic Chou) to arrive. Paul is caught in a jam because Yang Yang Yang (Miriam Yeung) is terrible at parallel parking her Ferrari and has been trying to squeeze her vehicle into a tight spot along a narrow street. Yang Yang wishes for a handsome guy to offer his help – and (voila!) Shen Ran pops up by her window. It just so happens that both are in the area to look for office space for their respective companies, and when Yang Yang sees Shen Ran in the window of the opposite building, she waves excitedly to him and gestures for him to meet downstairs for coffee – but really Shen Ran is gesturing instead to another hot(ter) Eurasian girl in the same building as Yang Yang. Before that misunderstanding is sorted out downstairs, Zixin throws herself at Yang Yang and begs her for a job because the latter is apparently acclaimed as a 'Goddess of Stocks'. And before the day is over, Paul would have made Yang Yang's acquaintance in the same way Shen Ran did earlier, but Yang Yang would also have hooked up with Shen Ran.It's a lot to keep up with, and it is firmly to To's credit that his audience remains engaged and not bewildered by the end of this flurry of happenings. Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering where Qihong is in the midst of all this, well he remains unfortunately in Suzhou on a project and sits out the Tennessee Waltz of changing partners. Yes, instead of five characters fighting for each other's attention and affections, there is really only four. Wai, who co- wrote the script with original scribe Ryker Chan and Yu Xi, chooses to let the audience favourite character, Qihong, sit out most of the movie to its own demise, because none of the ones we spend much of the time with – and that includes the French-spouting Qihong, who comes off less romantic than pretentious – are anything near endearing. On the contrary, Shen Ran, Zixin and Yang Yang are fickle and capricious, so we find it hard-pressed to root for any of them.Short of a deeper emotional connection with any of the main characters, we are left instead to indulge in their whimsicalities – and thankfully, there are a couple of fairly entertaining sequences here. One of these highlights sees the introduction of a clairvoyant octopus named Genie (clearly influenced by the similarly gifted Paul the Octopus) which Yang Yang and Paul (haha – get it?) rescue from a seafood restaurant in Sai Kung, a self-aware narrative element meant that references Zixin's pet toad in the previous film. Another riotous sequence has Shen Ran and his loyal effeminate assistant (Lam Suet) scrambling to keep the former's bevy of flight-attendant girlfriends in separate office rooms who appear simultaneously at his company to celebrate his birthday after Hurricane Sandy grounds all U.S.-bound air traffic.It is in that same screwball spirit that Wai wraps the shenanigans up with Shen Ran scaling the very skyscraper Qihong built for Zixin in a last-ditch attempt to declare his love for her on her wedding day itself. We won't spoil any surprise here, but suffice to say that besides Zixin, Yang Yang's own love triangle with Paul and Shen Ran also gets its resolution by the time the credits roll. Is it as poignant as the conclusion the last time round? Hardly, but like we said, this is all about the laughs and less about anything meaningful or poignant. It still is fun hanging out with such a high-powered ensemble for two hours, which is one of the pleasures that this sequel offers.But to answer the inevitable question whether it is necessary? It's probably clear by now that it isn't, motivated less by creative instinct than by commercial imperative. Yes, it's no secret that 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' was one of To and Wai's biggest hits in recent years, not least for the star-studded cast, and this sequel makes no apologies that it is simply out to entertain, shallow and artificial as the emotions it asks us to believe in are. It is a far lesser movie than its predecessor no doubt, but those looking for a superficially pleasing outing should be satisfied.