Golden Chicken 2
Year of release: 2003
Genre: comedy/drama
Director: Samson Chiu
Producer: Peter Chan
Stars: Sandra Ng, Jacky Cheung, Chapman To, Anthony Wong, Angelica Lee, Leon Lai, Ronald Cheng, Andy Lau, Dicky Cheung
Rated IIB for sexual content and language
Version reviewed: Mega Star DVD
Golden Chicken was a fairly light and funny look into life in Hong Kong as seen through the eyes of a "chicken" (prostitute) named Kum (wonderfully played by Sandra Ng). Its' sequel takes the same route, and it is pretty funny in parts, but the gears here have switched a bit and become more serious. Genre-mixing is quite common in HK movies, but Golden Chicken 2 can't quite gel both the comedy and drama together, and the film suffers as a result.
Like the first installment, the story is told in flashback. This time, Kum tells her story to a suicidal man (Chapman To) who is trying to erase his memory on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China. Kum has two tales to relate -- the first deals with her early years in the "business" as she deals with the growing feelings she has for her money-hungry cousin (Jacky Cheung), and the second takes place during last year's SARS crisis, as she attempts to make a living while dealing with germ-conscious HKers and a strange client (Ronald Cheng) who has an obsession with hair. As with the previous picture, Kum and her actions are seen as symbolic for Hong Kong as a whole.
Like I said before, Golden Chicken 2's main problem is that it never really seems to find its' groove. For instance, in the more modern part of the flashback, the bits that deal with SARS are extremely serious, but the segments which deal with Ronald Cheng's character are almost Wong Jing-esque toilet humor. When the viewer is expected to be sympathetic to his character after his true motives are revealed, it doesn't work because we still see him as a weird buffoon.
Still, Sandra Ng once again gives a great performance, and the cameos by various stars definitely liven up the proceedings (of particular note is a hilarious one by Andy Lau as the future Chief Executive of HK). There's nothing really that bad about Golden Chicken 2 -- in fact, I'm sure that fans of the first film will still enjoy this outing. There are certainly some funny bits, such as a joke that Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 finally got finished by that date, and there is some effective pathos, like Leon Lai's portrayal of a doctor getting burnt out while dealing with SARS patients. I just which the film-makers would have focused themselves a bit more and made a more cohesive product.
RATING: 6.5