Movie Review: Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2

Some of the best movies I have watched have been watched on the airplane.

I don’t know why. Maybe there is something about having the small screen just in front of you, the headphones over your ears, and a small confined space that somehow makes things magical.

Last week, on my way back home, I watched this great movie on my flight.

As the name suggests, it is actually a continuation of the first movie. In the first movie, the main lady protagonist was courted by two men. One of them is a charismatic and playful guy who is also an ultimate playboy (acted by Louis Koo), and the other is a very faithful and sincere guy (acted by Daniel Wu) whom she nicknamed “the Martian”, as it was so hard to find guys like that in this day and age. At the end of the first movie, she had to choose between the two of them. She very wisely chose the faithful guy as she could not bear having her heart broken by the playboy.

In the second movie, the love triangle becomes even more complicated. To make the long story short, in the end, she chose the playboy instead, as he has clearly demonstrated his commitment and faithfulness to her.

The storyline is actually so cheesy that I feel embarrassed just to say that I like this movie. Nevertheless, I really liked it.

One reason why I loved the movie was because of its ending. For the first movie, although there was nothing wrong with the lady’s decision to choose the faithful and sincere guy, I still felt a sense of indignance that the playboy was left with nothing in the end. In part that was because the way the playboy character was depicted makes people love him despite his weakness. As the Chinese saying goes, women love the baaaad guys. So the guys who break our hearts are also the ones we love the most.

Another reason why I loved the movie was due to its comedy and lightheartedness. I grew up watching lots of Hong Kong movies, and really, Hong Kong comedies are the best. There is a great sense of rhythm about them, and you can feel that the actors are having great fun while making the movies. In terms of comedic effect, I thought the second movie was not as good as the first one. Nevertheless, there were moments of great humour as we see Louis Koo juggling with multiple women on his birthday, and there was a sub-plot about a fortune-telling octopus, which albeit not innovative, was also quite funny in itself.

Perhaps the real killer that sealed the deal was the use of music in this movie. In both movie 1 and 2, the female protagonist was seen singing to a song either far away or in a movie clip. The guys had to guess what song the ladies were singing and the answer was only revealed at the end of the movies.

For the second movie, Miriam Yeung, the playboy’s new girlfriend, sang this heartbreaking song that was really apt for her character in the show, and for the storyline. The movie ended with the song playing while the credits were ran, leaving a tinge of sadness and bitterness to its ending.