Film: Money No Enough 2 (Review)

What took Jack Neo 10 years to present Singapore with this sequel? This question is justified by his local film box-office record achieving original in 1998, where the film was released coherently with the Asian economic crisis back then. Perhaps the answer to our question is found in the recent price inflation of almost everything ranging from rice to oil. Yes, Jack is back to respond to this economic phenomenon with Money No Enough 2!

Instead of being showcased as three best friends, this time Jack Neo, Mark Lee & Henry Thia are scripted as brothers of different financial status. The plot revolves the rise and fall of their monetary pursuit and how it affects family kinship and other domestic issues such as filial piety due to financial frustrations.

Apart from the expected beginning parody of issues like increased ERP gantries, the film actually has a more serious tone for the second half of the film where it starts to expose the ugly side of the family when the brothers are forced to financial points of desperation. With filial piety as one big major chunk of focus in the later part of the film, the mother of the three brothers gets a deserving share of increased screen presence with her superb acting chops portraying a sick mother who's an inconvenient piece of thrash in the eyes of the family. Mark impresses with his convincing bad husband role-acting, leaving us to hate him during scenes of spouse-torture. With such heart-wrenching issues as its agenda, you might want to bring along tissue napkins for those tear-jerking scenes.

All in all, it's a film that gives audience a chance to laugh at heartland topics as well as to realize the inner side of certain things that we might have overlooked due to our daily rat-race for fortune and success. The three brothers troubled by the assignment of taking care of Mom might ring a bell in some families, which is really a dismal tragedy seeing potential danger lurking in Singaporean families.

'

Oh yes, do watch out for the hilarious mini scene at the end as well as the NG scenes during the credit roll.

'

Kacang Puteh, anyone?

'

Managing Editor,

MuHu Son