Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 04/23/2007 Summary: 6.75/10 Wong Jing is as Wong Jing does Fanny (Cherry Ying) gives up her training in mahjong to marry young, to the handsome but sleazy Johnny (presumably a role that didn't stretch Terence Yin much). To further his ambitions in the Triad, Johnny abandons Fanny for his dai lo's sister Curvy. Fanny is suicidal, but her mahjong comrades and her brother convince her that it is much more admiral to take revenge on those that have wronged her... by finishing her training and defeating them in the world mahjong championships. Wong Jing was quick to cash in on the success of Kung Fu Hustle by casting Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu in broadly similar roles, and trotting out another in his long line of gambling comedy films. Since that went down well enough, he naturally followed it up with a sequel - which turns out to be a much better film. For a start, he wisely threw Roger Kwok out with the trash and gives the lead role to Cherry Ying, a much more charming and talented substitute. In fact, maybe that's the only reason - the script still deviates little from Wong Jing's gambling film template (he still seems to believe that winning is 1/3rd mysticism and 2/3rds cheating), and is still blighted by his casual racism and sexism... but it's all much more enjoyable when the lead role is played by somebody whose eyes you don't want to poke out! I still don't understand mahjong, which makes the gambling scenes a mixed experience - thanks to the formulaic nature of these films I can somewhat enjoy the rising and falling fortunes of the players without understanding exactly why such and such a tile is a good thing or a bad thing for them to have, and the mechanics of cheating are at least fairly universal :-p The film has quite a bit of sexual content, and it's a little uncomfortable at times seeing girls as young and sweet as Cherry Ying and Tiffany Lee talking about sex as seen through the eyes of Wong Jing - or in relation to Terence Yin (yuck). But, despite having easily identifiable flaws (which are easily predictable in a Wong Jing film, so no viewer can claim to have been ambushed by them), KUNG FU MAHJONG is a reasonably entertaining bit of fluff - probably a 6.75, scientifically speaking :-) Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 06/28/2006 When you think about all of the films out there that deserve some sort of sequel, Kung Fu Mahjong probably doens't run near the top of that list. But this is Wong "anything for a buck" Jing we're talking about here, and since Kung Fu Mahjong did make some money at the box office (stunningly, it actually topped the HK charts when it premiered), a sequel was inevitable. While Kung Fu Mahjong was a moderately enjoyable comedy/gambling picture, it was pretty clear that the production was running on the fumes in Wong Jing's gas tank of creativity. Its' sequel unfortunately points out that the tank might now be bone-dry. The story has a young woman named Fanny (Cherrie Ying) who is blessed with an extraordinary ability to play mahjong, but is forbidden to do so by her husband Johnny (Terence Yin), who is trying to move up the Triad ladder by aligning himself with a tough dai lo named Demon (Patrick Keung, sporting one of the worst haircuts seen onscreen since the days of Flock of Seagulls). After Johnny is seduced by Demon's sister Curvy (Zuki Lee), Demon forces him to leave Fanny, which also causes her to lose her gambling prowess. Seeking solace from her sifus in gambling (Wong Tin-Lam, Yuen Qiu and Yuen Wah), Fanny decides to enter the world mahjong tournament in order to bankrupt Demon and get her revenge. Kung Fu Mahjong 2's plot isn't going to win any awards, and the script doesn't help matters any. It's pretty foul, even by Wong Jing's "flying paper" standards. For instance, during the tournament, there's a character from Italy named "Mr. Spaghetti" who talks like Super Mario and another one from India who uses the smell of curry to distract his opponents. This sort of stuff is not only just not funny, it's damn insulting to the viewer. If it wasn't for the eye candy of the female leads and a few good scenes between Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu, Kung Fu Mahjong 2 would have been a total stinker. Come on Wong Jing, give the audience some credit here and actually start putting some thought into your productions, or else they're going to start turning away in droves - if they already haven't. [review from hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 03/05/2006 Summary: a sequel betters an original With producer Ivy Kong Yuk-Yee, Wong Jing continues to develop the mahjong king genre of Hong Kong Cinema. Kung Fu Mahjong 2 perpetuates the saga of Auntie Fei and Chi Mo Sai with Yuen Qiu and Yuen Wah reprising their roles from the earlier film. Rare it is that a sequel betters an original film. Here, this is the case. Wong Jing turns over the writing chores to Fung Keung and helps the writer follow the workshop formula, taking out what didn't work in the first film [Roger Kwok] and replacing it with something that does work [more pretty girls]. Director Wong gets a classy, tender performance from Cherrie Ying Choi-Yi as Fannie, a girl who loses her cheating husband in a mahjong game with her rival. Later, through her mental anguish, she loses her skills at winning mahjong. As it turns out, she was trained by the same master [played by Wong Tin-Lam] as Auntie Fei. With the help of Fei and some other junior students of master Three Tiles, Fannie is soon back to her winning ways. Actor Wong Jing reprises his role as Tin Kau Ko, the mahjong villain. During the mahjong tournament, check out the hilarious lampooning of Thai martial arts star, Tony Jaa and "Himalaya Singh," each with a unique mahjong cheating style. Reviewer Score: 8