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Cast:
Lau
Ching Wan
Louis
Koo
Cecilia
Cheung
Rosamund
Kwan
Gigi
Leung
Carina
Lau
Chikako
Aoyama
Jim
Chim
Producer:
Charles
Heung
Chan
Hing Kai
Amy
Chin
Director:
Patrick
Leung
Chan
Hing Kai
Score:
 
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MIGHTY
BABY
AKA:
La Brassiere 2
Year:
2002 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
One
of the hit films of late 2001-early 2002, 'La
Brassiere', gets an inevitable sequel and attempts to
rekindle the box-office magic of the original. Hong Kong Lau
Ching Wan and Louis Koo return as the two male leads of
'Mighty Baby' and are joined by Gigi Leung, Carina Lau (who
has more of a cameo role here) along with new additions
Cecilia Cheung and Rosamund Kwan.
Since
their tremendous success creating the 'Ultimate Bra' for their
company, Johnny (Lau Ching Wan) and Wayne (Louis Koo) have
fallen on hard times. Their respective relationships haven't
worked out as well as expected and their business acumen is
faltering as they attempt to capitalise on their past glory.
However, an opportunity arises when the wife of a Japanese tycoon
decides to use his newly-bought company to design an exclusive
line of baby merchandise inspired by his wife's pregnancy. The
Japanese head office contact Samantha (Carina Lau) who in turn
hires now ex-boyfriend Johnny and Wayne to design a unique
product that will set the marketplace alight. As difficult as
their last task was, Johnny and Wayne now find that this new
assignment is even more of a challenge and they are unable to
find inspiration despite an office full of babies. To this
end, Johnny hires specialist Boey (Cecilia Cheung) to
communicate with the babies and understand their needs.
Although Wayne is initially unsure of Boey's skills, he later
begins to warm to her and a mutual attraction develops. Lena (Gigi
Leung) is soon made aware of this and must decide whether her
faltering relationship with Wayne is worth continuing. With
Johnny starting an unlikely courtship with his neurotic
secretary Sabrina (Rosamund Kwan), the distractions begin to
effect their work and the goal of the ultimate baby product
looks some way off.
'Mighty
Baby' is a comedy that enjoys a massive 'ahhh' factor due to
the presence of scores of ridiculously cute Oriental babies.
This might not be to everyone's tastes, but even the most
hard-hearted viewer will undoubtedly be disarmed by their
appearance. Obviously a film needs much more than this to
sustain attention for nearly two hours and it is this point
that 'Mighty Baby' has trouble with. The storyline is almost a
natural progression to the original and it's a nice touch to
see some of the supporting actresses from the first film now
with babies to look after. The difficulty the film-makers have
is that there's not enough present here to stretch it to 110
minutes; there seems no excuse with a film as simply
constructed as this for extending the film to nearly two
hours. The first half hour of 'Mighty Baby' offers plenty of
entertainment and initially indicates that the rest of the
film will follow suit. Unfortunately this proves to be false
hope on the part of the viewer and the narrative instead gets
bogged down on the ludicrous relationship complications
created by the characters. 'Mighty Baby' also becomes
increasingly bizarre and relies a little too much on
over-the-top comedy when a little control would have been far
better.
If
nothing else, this film goes to show how a lack of good
material can sometimes be covered over by an excellent cast.
Lau Ching Wan rarely gives a below par performance and here
his genuine chemistry with Louis Koo proves to be the main
highlight of the film. Put two actors like this with actresses
the calibre of Rosamund Kwan (who doesn't seem to age),
Cecilia Cheung and Carina Lau and there's no doubt that the
film has a cast of superior quality. Perhaps, though,
directors Patrick Leung and Chan Hing-Kai rely a little too
much on the cast's professionalism rather than capitalising on
the impressive opening thirty minutes. It's factors like this
which indicate that, while 'Mighty Baby' is still an appealing
comedy, it is a bit too lazy.
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