Ah Boys to Men 2

新兵正传II

Singapore/Malaysia, 2013, colour, 1.85:1, 112 mins.

Director: Liang Zhiqiang 梁智强 [Jack Neo].

Rating: 5/10.

Continuation of the National Service comedy is more repetitive and conventional.

STORY

Singapore, the present day. A couple of weeks into his compulsory National Service on Pulai Tekong (Tekong Island), spoiled rich kid Cao Junjie (Chen Wei’en) suddenly turns into a model recruit, after the partial paralysis of his father (Liu Qianyi) in a car crash for which he feels partly responsible. Among the motley group of slackers that make up Ninja Company, he even starts siding with goody-two-shoes Zeng Xielang (Lin Junliang), who always wants to play by the rules and be the best so that he can get into Officer Cadet School and make his mother (Ye Limei) proud. Gradually the group starts to turn against him, as they already have against Zeng Xielang, especially when he tries to persuade them to give up smoking to improve their performance in long-distance training. When working-class, street-wise trader Wen Yingbi (Ye Rongyao) discovers his girlfriend Mayoki (Luo Yuqi) has dumped him for flashy young thug Zheng Zhidan (Benjamin Mok), his comrade Wang Luobang (Wang Weiliang) suggests he uploads a video message on to the internet pretending he doesn’t care as he already has a voluptuous new girlfriend. Zheng Zhidan and Mayoki respond with a video showing them both in a bubble-bath, which further enrages Wen Yingbi. As a result, Wang Luobang plans a military-style operation in which the group cover Zheng Zhidan and Mayoki in excrement while they’re necking in a car. Later that night, however, Ninja Company is attacked by Zheng Zhidan and his pals, and the fight is caught on CCTV cameras. Back at camp, the boys are all punished, including Cao Junjie, who joined in the fight to help his comrades. As the group progresses in its basic training to Field Camp, it gradually learns the importance of team spirit and loyalty to one’s comrades.

REVIEW

Picking up exactly where Ah Boys to Men 新兵正传 (2012) ended, and following the same motley group of National Service recruits to the end of their nine-week basic training, Singaporean comedy Ah Boys to Men 2 新兵正传II by writer-director Liang Zhiqiang 梁智强 [Jack Neo] has many of the same strengths but also more of the same weaknesses. Shot at the same time as the first film, and released in Singapore three months later, it actually outperfomed the original’s success (rare for a sequel). But despite a first half that maintains the same sardonic spirit, the movie progressively loses momentum during the final 40 minutes, with an ending that is virtually a recruitment commercial for the island republic’s armed forces.

After a start that recaps the main events of Part 1, and then repeats some of the same jokes, Part 2 settles down into a rondo of pranks and punishment (separated by training sequences) that becomes more and more repetitive. The main problem is that, unlike Part 1, there’s no over-arcing story to provide a dramatic spine for the picture: here the previous main character, angry rich-kid Cao Junjie, not only turns into a boring model recruit but is also effectively sidelined in favour of others like the fast-talking Wen Yingbi, loutish Wang Luobang and hysterical Tamil recruit Ismail. Though Cao Junjie still provides occasional voice-overs, he’s no longer the centre of the group – and there’s no through-story on a par with his girlfriend problems in Part 1 to tie everything together.

With the Cao Junjie of Chen Wei’en 陈伟恩 and the increasingly annoying goody-two-shoes Zeng Xielang of Lin Junliang 林俊良 not providing much comic relief, it’s left to Wang Weiliang 王伟良, as a kind of Li Guohuang 李国煌 [Mark Lee]-like Ah Beng character and the street-wise Wen Yingbi of Ye Rongyao 叶荣耀 to make the going – which they do well. The first half, especially, is rich in Liang’s usual puns and linguistic jokes, as the dialogue floats naturally between Singlish, Hokkien and Mandarin; but with most of the action set on the island training base, one yearns for more of such lively characters from Part 1 like Cao Junjie’s motor-mouthed mother (the wonderful Hong Ailing 洪爱玲 [Irene Ang]), always looking for ways round the system. Zhang Zhiyang 张智扬 is again good as the platoon sergeant, but his role, like the film as a whole, becomes gradually softer as the second half progresses.

Liang’s recurrent weakness for starting wittily but later slipping into sentimentality and conventional attitudes is clearer than ever here, with his characters having any individuality ironed out of them by the end and the whole two-part movie ending in a patriotic National Day parade. Maybe that’s the message, but it’s delivered without a trace of irony.

Technical credits are equally smooth as in Part 1, and some clever visual effects are let loose in a witty “model war” in a mall. Among the in-jokes, there’s a reference to the real-life event on the training island that inspired horror film 23:59 (2011) and a fleeting cameo by well-known local blogger/social critic mrbrown, aka Li Jianmin 李健敏, as a test assessor. But it’s all decorative icing on a pretty conventional cake.

CREDITS

Presented by J Team Productions (SG), MM2 Entertainment (MY). Produced by J Team Productions (SG), MM2 Entertainment (MY).

Script: Liang Zhiqiang [Jack Neo], Sun Yiqun. Photography: Wang Junfa, Lin Guohua [Ardy Lam], Zhao Weixian. Editing: Yan Wenzhong. Music direction: Mai Ruli. Title song: Zhang Zhiyang. Art direction: Mo Zhuanghao. Costumes: Yang Xiuling. Sound: Luo Lishan, Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang], Li Yaoqiang. Action: Liu Hongyi. Visual effects: Fang Weijie (VividThree). Second-unit photography: Manickam Senthilnathan.

Cast: Chen Wei’en (Cao Junjie/Ken), Lin Junliang (Zeng Xielang/Aloysius/Wayang King), Ye Rongyao (Wen Yingbi/IP Man), Wang Weiliang (Wang Luobang/Lobang King), Zhang Zhiyang (Alex Wang, platoon sergeant), Hong Ailing [Irene Ang] (Cao Junjie’s mother), Liu Qianyi (Cao Junjie’s father), Wang Lei (Cao Junjie’s uncle), Aizuddin Nasser (Muthu Shanmugaratnam), Ridhwan Azman (Ismail Mohammed), You Yamin (Cao Junjie’s grandmother), Xie Zhen’gang (officer-in-command), Chen Weiming (Heng Seng Bock, sergeant), Wu Qingliang (Ming), Daniel Ang (Cheng), Feng Wenna (Sun Liliang), Liu Xutao (Liao Kong Chai), Lin Zhenwen (Sam Too), Li Wenlong (Jed Huang, sergeant), Rovin Rajenthram (Kumar Krishnan), Chen Tianwen (Zeng Xielang’s father), Li Jianmin [mrbrown] (situation test assessor), Wang Lei (Cao Junjie’s uncle), Ye Limei (Zeng Xielang’s mother), Deng Jiajia, Deng Sisi (Ken’s twin sisters), Biwa Mastura (Maria), Luo Yuqi (Mayoki, Wen Yingbi’s girlfriend), Benjamin Mok (Zheng Zhidan/Real Bullet), Wu Jianping (platoon commander), Huang Zhenfu (company sergeant major), Leah Yang, Sarah Chen (bikini girls).

Release: Singapore, 1 Feb 2013; Malaysia, 14 Mar 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 19 Jul 2013.)