DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2 Starring: Louis Koo Tin-lok, Miriam Yeung Chin-wah, Gao Yuanyuan, Vic Chou Yu-min Director: Johnnie To Kei-fung Category: IIA (Cantonese, Putonghua, English and French) His heart is not in it. That's the feeling one gets about Johnnie To Kei-fung when viewing Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 , the filmmaker's follow-up to his and Wai Ka-fai's engaging 2011 romantic comedy about a love triangle involving a playboy broker (Louis Koo Tin-lok), a female financial analyst (Gao Yuanyuan) and an unassuming architect (Daniel Wu Yin-cho). More over-the-top silly and indulgent than truly funny and charming, the film picks up close to where the first Don't Go Breaking My Heart left off, with fallout from 2012's Hurricane Sandy being incorporated into the story, and many plot elements — including a psychic octopus that references both the 2010 World Cup Finals' Paul the Octopus and a pet frog from the first film — giving a sense that its filmmakers are more into looking back than breaking new ground. Inexplicably, the first film's arguably most winning character, Wu's Qihong, is shunted to the side — or, rather, Suzhou — for much of this sequel. But rather than focus on Shen-ran (Koo) and Zixin (Gao), the sequel adds two members from the top 1 per cent of society to the farcical mix in the Ferrari-driving "Goddess of Stocks" Yang Yang-yang (Miriam Yeung Chin-wah) and luxury yacht-owning designer Paul (Vic Chou Yu-min). Also hard to fathom is why these characters appear so half-hearted in their romantic commitments and pursuits. For example, you'd think that Zixin would have already settled with the steady Qihong and that the pair would be happily married. Instead, they've postponed their wedding until the construction of a building on which he's working, leaving an engaged but still legally single woman on the open market in Hong Kong. Considering Zixin and Shen-ran both work in the financial sector, it did seem inevitable that they would cross paths again. Also not out of the question was the possibility that the still caddish Shen-ran's roving eye would land on Zixin's new boss, Yang-yang, along with a number of other women. But when Shen-ran's most serious competitor for Yang-yang's affections turns out to be Zixin's brother, it's hard not to conclude that scriptwriters Wai Ka-fai (who also co-produced the film with To), Ryker Chan Wai-ban and Yu Xi have run low on creativity, resorting to heavy reliance on contrived coincidences. And perhaps because their characters are pretty much unchanged from the last film, Koo and Gao turn in performances that feel overly familiar, and thus tired. Consequently, it's left to the story's newcomers to supply some sparks — and Yeung and Chou do generate some laughs, including those scenes that also involve the aforementioned octopus. Still, there's no getting away from the sense that Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 is an unnecessary sequel. And based on its considerable drop in quality, To and co should resist the temptation to go for a third. Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 opens on November 13
