Hong Kong cinema has long been sympathetic to the plight of the city’s sex workers, but Venus Keung Kwok-man’s slapdash sequel to last year’s The Gigolo, with its nonsensical depiction of modern prostitution, still pushes plausibility and patience to the limit.

Dominic Ho Ho-man reprises his role of Fung, aka “King of the Gigolos”, now ‘retired’ and running a trashy nightspot in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district. He takes on a rare new client, Monica (Connie Man Hoi-ling), who has reluctantly turned to prostitution to pay her mother’s medical bills. Having been referred to him for carnal guidance after a customer labels her a “dead fish”, Monica inevitably falls for Fung’s charms.

The Gigolo 2 features a roster of buxom bikini babes, including Iris Chung Choi-hei, Hazel Tong Chi-yui and Leslie Lam Lei-han (as another of Fung’s clients, in literal need of “loosening up”), as well as oiled beefcakes fronted by Lam Tsz-sin. But the supposedly erotic comedy fails to perform: the sex scenes are cautious and stilted, the humour desperate and obvious, and the romance woefully naive.