Summary
While bearing little to no resemblance to the first film, it does have a striking similarity to several other comedies of recent memory. Chaotic, frequently nonsensical, and full of bizarre turns – and that’s before Mike Tyson shows up.
Barbara Wong Chun-chun’s 2014 film Girls took some odd turns. Lurching from broad comedy to melodrama, it even went to some darker places in a grisly third act turn. Despite this, it was an disarmingly charming romantic dramedy with engaging lead actors. None of this would logically lead us to long-delayed GIRLS 2: GIRLS VS GANGSTERS (闺蜜2：无二不作), which may take the sharpest left turn in a franchise since The Brady Bunch in the White House.
The frequently emotionally messy Xiwen (Ivy Chen) announces that she’s getting married to Qiao Li, her romantic interest from the first film. Her BFF Kimmy (Fiona Sit) convinces her to go on a bachelorette trip to Vietnam, but is chagrined to learn that Xiwen has also invited Kimmy’s mortal enemy, the well-to-do Jialan (Ning Chang Chun-ning), as well as Qiao Li’s sister, Jingjing (Wang Shuilin). After a hard night of drinking, Xiwen, Kimmy, and Jialan wake up naked on a Cambodian beach with no memory of what happened the night before. Chained to a mysterious box, and not sure where Jingjing has gotten to, they are soon on the run from the titular gangsters.
If any of that sounds familiar, it’s because you saw it in The Hangover. Then other parts of it in Bridesmaids. Then again in The Hangover Part II. Xiwen even has a mysterious tattoo she can’t remember getting. Much like the films it imitates poorly, the movie spends most of its time unpicking the events of the night before. Yet where The Hangover followed clues from one location to the next, GIRLS 2 pings from place to place with no real sense of continuity. There’s busty assassins, a series of beaten-up male strippers, and frequent vocal performances of torch song ‘Wordless Ending’ that get lost in translation.
Things get especially strange when Mike Tyson turns up. Completing The Hangover connection, Tyson plays a half-Korean version of himself who spends part of his time in South-East Asia. In Barbara Wong’s infinite wisdom, she has cast a convicted rapist as the object of affection for Jialan. Rather than being a brief cameo, Tyson’s lengthy second act appearance sees the boxer/registered sex offender don a military uniform, spasmodically run through the streets, and fend off gangsters with faux martial arts. If you thought Tyson’s performances were stilted in other films, wait until you see him speaking in slow, subtitled English.
Zishan Yang wisely chose not to return for this second film, and her character Xiamei’s absence is never fully explained (save for her being ‘on set’ somewhere). Similarly, fiancé Qiao Li (played by Shawn Yue in the first Girls) is only ever heard over the phone. It’s amazing that they manage to stage an entire wedding sequence without showing the groom once, although it makes about as much sense as anything else in this movie.
The conclusion to the story is literally dependent on a running poop joke, one in which Jialan slowly becomes comfortable with Kimmy taking a dump in her presence. If ever there was a perfect in-film metaphor for GIRLS 2, this is it. Derivative, confusing, and needlessly convoluted, this is the type of film that gets made by throwing darts at a board. So bring on Girls 3, basically.
2018 | China | DIRECTOR: Barbara Wong | WRITERS: Daryl Doo, Yigyan Hou, Barbara Wong, Shanyu Zheng | CAST: Fiona Sit, Ivy Chen, Ning Chang Chun-ning, Mike Tyson, Wang Shuilin, Fan Tiantian | DISTRIBUTOR: Magnum Films/ChopFlix (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 March 2018 (AUS)
