Asian Movie Review: The Wedding Diary II (結婚那件事之後, 2013)

I saw this film at the closing night screening of Screen Singapore 2012.  It stars Singapore actor Aniu and Hong Kong actresses Elanne Kwong and Kara Hui.

I didn't get to see the original "Wedding Diary" til I was on my way home to HK on the plane, but since I watched this first I'll review it first.   

Keat and Xin (Aniu and Elanne Kwong) are a young couple with a new baby.  Xin is beautiful and comes from a rich family with a real estate empire.  Keat is from a poor family from Penang that sells salted fish.  Keat ends up quitting his job to become a full time stay at home dad.    The film focuses on some typical cheap laughs and situations….   this is typical for a sequel to a popular comedy…. everyone wants to see the same actors doing taking up the same characters at least one more time, even if there's not a good enough story to sustain a stand alone film.  It especially seems to happen with Romantic Comedies.    The second one has to come up with some contrived conflict in order to have an excuse for a story… (Love Undercover, Fight Back to School being just two examples that come to mind…)  in this case its a subplot about an illegitimate sister that shows up on their doorstep and throws everything into chaos between our loving couple and their families.

Therefore, if you see this one,  definitely do if after watching #1. At least you'll be invested in the characters so the phony crisis means at least something.  On its own this film is probably a 4/10 for its contrivance alone. :-P

I'll give it a +1 for the cameo by Mindee Ong in a random subplot.  ;-)

ps - since its apparently not being released until next month, I've already put it down as a '2013' film in the title...

pps - since I couldn't find any good stills online, here's two pics I took of the cast at the premiere screening -