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 hough
a
Hong Kong
comedy about breast cancer conjures up all manner
of images of bad taste humour, "2 Become
1" is actually a fairly level headed attempt
to mix romance and 'issue' drama. Despite these
initial reservations, this bright and breezy
approach at least makes for a change from the
usual heavy handed Hollywood 'disease of the week'
type film which tend to obsess over scenes of lead
characters, usually played by Meryl Streep, losing
their hair. Of course, this is not to say that
"2 Become 1" is actually a good film, as
aside from its potentially novel manner of dealing
with the subject, it is utterly conventional in
every other respect, filled with the usual mixture
of eye-rolling comedy and tacky tugs at the
heartstrings.
The plot follows the oddly
named Bingo (Miriam Yeung, recently in "Dumplings"),
a thirty year old advertising executive who is
hard headed, but as cinematic tradition demands,
is also prone to comedy pratfalls. One night when
out with her shrill friends, she meets V (Richie
Ren, "Breaking
News"), a mysterious charmer, and the two
end up going home together, though things don't
turn out quite as expected after he finds a lump
on her breast. Diagnosed with breast cancer, Bingo
tries to get on with her daily routine, gradually
coming to realise that she now has to deal not
only with the usual work and romantic
complications, but with making the most important
decision of her life.
There is no reason why comedy
can't be used to raise awareness of such an
important topic as breast cancer, and thankfully
"2 Become 1" does make an effort to
treat the disease in a serious manner, promoting
self performed check ups and going some way to
genuinely tackle some of the societal stigmas
associated with it. Unfortunately, while some of
the surrounding laughs are reasonably effective,
the majority fall into the clichés of the chick
flick subgenre, revolving around the requisite,
limp wristed gay friend who joins in the various
girly activities.
There is certainly the grain
of a genuinely moving story here, though
unfortunately, things give way to cheap sentiment
all too often, made all the worse by the inclusion
of some truly nauseating pop songs by Justin Lo,
whose absolutely unnecessary inclusion in the plot
is blatantly for this purpose alone. Similarly,
although by trying to give a positive message and
not treating the protagonist as a victim, for
which it does score some points, the film diverts
needlessly into far too many subplots, most of
which show her attempting to help other people who
the viewer neither knows nor cares about. Bingo is
the only real character in the film, with the
majority of the cast simply on hand to provide
support as lazily written stereotypes in gag
roles, none of which works, and at times seem to
have been simply pasted in from another film.
Although Bingo is a
reasonably well fleshed out character, much of her
behaviour is inconsistent and seems to have been
written around set pieces, such as some
ill-advised comedy suicide attempt scenes. Miriam
Yeung does her best with the part, and turns in a
half decent performance, but she simply does not
have enough to work with in a role which demands
far more emotional depth. The same sadly cannot be
said for Ren, who spends most of the film grinning
inanely or with an expression of exaggerated
surprise on his face, frequently squealing 'Ok,
yeah!' in English in a manner which verges on high
camp. This does little for the romance aspect of
the film, as his character seems far more
interested in getting together with Bingo's gay
friend, though it does provide some unintentional
hilarity.
To be fair, there is nothing
actually wrong with "2 Become 1",
although it is a shame to see an important topic
like breast cancer tackled with such a distinct
lack of ambition. Though light hearted romance may
not be a bad medium to convey a message of
self-awareness and acceptance, it is hard to see
"2 Become 1" as anything other than a
reasonable time filler which offers a handful of
laughs amongst the clichés.
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