Mou Men Tai 2 (No Problem 2) (2002)

A young (well, short) Japanese chef loves Hong Kong movies and dreams of being a movie star. Taking dreams a little too far, he packs up and moves to Hong Kong. He gets caught up in a typically villainous plot to cheat a busty heiress out of her fortune. This leads to much action, but mostly a lot of comedy.

The movie is directed by Chin Kar Lok and features a mostly Cantonese cast and crew. It probably registered on most people's radars because it has a reasonably sized role for Yuen Biao, who doesn't grace the HK screens much these days. It's an affectionate spoof of Hong Kong action movies, with a lot of general goofiness mixed in. The plot is full-cliche ahead action movie nonsense, but quite knowingly so I presume.

With Chin Kar Lok directing and a cast featuring top martial artists Yuen Biao, Kim Won Jun and Ngai Sing, it's probably one of the best assemblies of martial arts talent for a movie in some time. I wonder why it took Japanese investment to bring such a project about? It's not wall to wall kung fu action throughout the movie though - there's only a few fight scenes, but a couple of those do feature some real kung fu! Woo hoo! Yuen Biao shows some moves, but its clear that he's not in the great shape he used to be. Kim Won Jun on the other hand is fantastic - it's great to see him getting involved in movies again. Ngai Sing almost steals the movie as the cool villain, but doesn't really get to show much kung fu prowess. I'm sure he's capable of much better, and out of the fighters present he looked like he's in by far the best physical condition right now.

Although the movie is a spoof of HK action movies, action isn't the main driving force. Like many HK movies, comedy is splashed liberally throughout. The comedy is very 'comic book' goofy slapstick humour, lots of "wacky" facial expressions and music. The first time I saw the movie it didn't click with me (perhaps because this is not what I was expecting), but on a second watch a few years later I found it to be genuinely hilarious much of the time. It helps to have seen part 1 inbetween - though the movies are very different, and feature no plot continuity, it did endear me to the diminutive Japanese star Takashi Okamura, which helped me enjoy part 2 more.

The movie isn't a classic, but does feature some decent action and some hilarious comedy. It lacks the compelling story of the first NO PROBLEM, but is much wackier and more high-energy, which may make it the more enjoyable of the two for some.