Family film not at all stupid

I Not Stupid Too, a sequel to the popular Singaporean schoolboy drama I Not Stupid (2002), is more than just a heartwarming children's comedy. It is also a poignant satire of a society where parents are preoccupied by work and children too busy with school.

The film revolves around three teenagers - Tom (Shawn Lee), his younger brother Jerry (Ashley Leong) and their friend Cheng Cai (Joshua Ang).

Tom and Jerry are typical middle-class children whose well-educated parents are too busy to care about them. Cheng Cai's father (Huang Yi-liang), on the other hand, is the owner of a humble hawker stall, but he doesn't know how to express his love for his son - a boy who prefers martial arts to studying.

In I Not Stupid, director-writer-actor Jack Neo poked fun at a variety of issues ranging from education to language policy in Singapore. This time, he narrows his subject and focuses on painting a funny, and at times heartbreaking, picture of the collapse of two Singaporean families due to communication breakdown.

The situation is not uncommon in many Asian cities, which makes the humour and message of the film relevant to Hong Kong children and parents.

Neo, who plays the father of Tom and Jerry, delivers a hilarious and touching performance as a man who is torn between his family and his work. An overbearing father at home, he is as timid as a mouse when dealing with his boss - a reflection of the double-sided life of many parents.