I Not Stupid Too

I Not Stupid Too
Directed by	Jack Neo
Written by	Jack Neo
Produced by	Daniel Yun
Starring	Ashley Leong Shawn Lee Joshua Ang Xiang Yun Jack Neo Huang Yiliang
Music by	Mo Ju Li
Production company	Mediacorp Raintree Pictures
Distributed by	United International Pictures
Release date	26 January 2006 (2006-01-26)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	Singapore
Languages	Mandarin Hokkien English

I Not Stupid Too (Chinese: 小孩不笨2; pinyin: Xiǎohái Bù Bèn Èr; lit. 'Children are not stupid 2') is a 2006 Singaporean satirical comedy film and the sequel to the 2002 film, I Not Stupid. A satirical comedy, I Not Stupid Too portrays the lives, struggles and adventures of three Singaporean youths—8-year-old Jerry, his 15-year-old brother Tom and their 15-year-old friend Chengcai—who have a strained relationship with their parents. The film explores the issue of poor parent-child communication.

The director and screenwriter, Jack Neo, was inspired to make the film by a book about appreciation education. The movie was produced by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures on a budget of S$1.5 million. It stars Ashley Leong, Shawn Lee, Joshua Ang, Xiang Yun, Jack Neo and Huang Yiliang. Filming took place at several Singaporean schools in June 2005.

I Not Stupid Too was released in cinemas on 26 January 2006, and earned over S$4 million in total. The film became the second-highest grossing Singaporean film in history, with only Money No Enough grossing more. At the 2006 Hong Kong Film Awards, it was nominated for Best Asian Film, but lost to Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Critical reception was ranged from a positive review, although some criticized the movie as overly preachy. A serialised version of the film was aired on Channel 8, and a Malay language remake was done four years later.

Plot[]

The Yeo parents, Karen, a magazine editor and Steven, a 3G phone sales representative, neglect their two children, Tom and Jerry. Tom was a Normal Technical student from Singapore High who studies along with his friend Lim Chengcai, who lives with a widowed father and possesses a fighting talent, and a teacher, Fu, who criticizes them on their work by not looking at the merits which another teacher he advises on; Jerry was a Primary school student, an avid performing arts performer who always studies hard but was chastised for the lack of improvement.

Jerry was chosen as a lead for a school concert and during rehearsals, the students teases him by bumping his classmate Xiaoxi with lips touching each other. A worrying Xiaoxi wishes not to be pregnant and wants to perform abortion, which Jerry uses his savings to buy pineapples after referring to a superstition, resulting in her being brought to a clinic and Jerry getting scolded by his parents. Steven's mother came to Jerry's defence, but Steven replied that they were unaware of Jerry's actions, resulting in a quarrel between Steven and Karen which resulted in them isolating themselves; this tension was relieved a few days later where Jerry stealthily messages each other an apology.

The following day, Tom was attacked by a gang and Chengcai attacked them back, but accidentally ran across Fu and ran away, leading to the school principal's attention. Afterwards, Chengcai's father visited his coffee shop owner and close friend Yang before he went on to buy a school bag to give to Chengcai, replacing an old bag which was damaged due to an argument. He purchased a bag with a cartoon design under a tight budget, but Chengcai declines it; he convinces Chengcai on changing his school bag by explaining the merits but fails, leading him to frisk his bag. After seeing a failed exam paper, Chengcai ran off, while the father kept the new bag inside a store room.

One day, while the school was conducting phone checks, Tom accidentally dropped a pornographic VCD while confiscating his handphone. Tom kicked the disk to other students until it was landed onto Fu, then Chengcai attacked him while the students who had not surrendered the handphones took videos of the scuffle. The principal decided to expel Chengcai due to multiple disciplinary record and subject Tom to public caning for his part in the scuffle, which later became controversial as debates on caning across Singapore become headlines and the recorded video went viral. Both Karen and Fu resigned, but the latter was declined by the school because the principal told that he was not blamed for the incident and added on his efforts as being a dedicated remedial teacher. Meanwhile, Tom and Chengcai joined a group of gang.

Tom ran off at home after Karen spotted him blogging and called Steven to find him and his the gang, but he refuses as he was deemed useless on his perspective and actions never deem worthy by the parents, leading to a brawl and were arrested. Steven later gave Tom a 3G handphone in hopes on his communication.

A desperate Jerry, after unable to ask his parents to see his concert, began saving up $500 after overhearing a phone conversation with Steven to see his presentation for an hour. Despite selling his Pokémon trading cards and unable to retrieve his deposit from a bank account, Jerry stole the money from a stall and able to reach $500, but shortly he handed the money to Tom, who revealed that he need more money to pay a $2,000 ransom from the 'fake' policemen for their theft. The parents shortly learn on his theft, then caned him when they return home. Jerry had to come clean and explained that his intention was just meant to buy an hour's worth to see the concert using his savings but could not raise enough even though he sold his cards. Shortly later this time, their parents went to visit Tom's room, and began to broke down after seeing his paper notes and blog posts that he disappointed them.

Meanwhile, out on the blue on the same day right after the caning occurred, Tom and Chengcai desperately went to steal a necklace from an elderly but after running away and reflected on their misdeeds, they went to return it but the other residents went to apprehend them. Tom's phone dropped while he was running away, activating a speed dial on Steven who rushes off while he was conducting a vital presentation on 3G phones with the Chinese shareholders, despite his boss's will against him leaving the site. Lim, after visiting a clinic, went to protect Chengcai from the fight but ended up knocking him unconscious as well. Meanwhile, Steven arrived on the site to defend Tom's action for stealing, and was backed by Karen, Jerry and his mother, explaining that they have failed their responsibilities as parents despite the caning and lecturing. Steven concluded the speech by begging the elder to be arrested by police, but she excused them by explaining to the police about the prank call.

Tom encountered the imposters again, Steven gave them hell money and the police came shortly to warrant their arrest. Steven shortly received a call from the boss to inform his promotion as a Chief Operating Officer, but he declined to comment on his return. Meanwhile, Lim visited schools to try to accept Chengcai but unsuccessful; after Lim was hospitalized in a critical state due to the fight with people who want to apprehend Chengcai for robbing the old lady, he returned to the school to ask the principal for reinstating him. Initially refused, but she accepts under the encouragement of Fu and after visiting Lim. In his last words, Lim encourages Chengcai to aim for the top to prove his worth. Following his death, Yang appointed as Chengcai's legal guardian.

In the epilogue, Fu's teaching attitude improves and the principal improved her Chinese speaking, while Chengcai became a martial arts trainer and eventually became a world champion in an international fighting tournament. The Yeo family managed to attend Jerry's concert.

Cast[]

• Ashley Leong as Jerry Yeo
  The younger brother of two of the Yeo family, and doubled as the film's narrator. He was charismatic and interested in performing arts.
  • Charles Chan played as an infant Jerry, and Raffles Neo played as a baby Jerry during the film's epilogue.
• Shawn Lee as Tom Yeo
  The elder brother of two of the Yeo family. Lee reprises his role as Liu Kok Pin from the first film.
• Joshua Ang as Lim Chengcai
  A close friend of Tom and a good martial arts street fighter. Ang reprises his role as Ang Boon Hock from the first film.
• Xiang Yun as Karen Yeo
  The mother of the Yeo family and is a magazine editor. Xiang reprises her role as the mother of Liu Kok Pin from the first film; Zoe Tay was initially cast for this role as replacement but later backed out due to other reasons.
• Jack Neo as Steven Yeo
  The father of the Yeo family who is a salesman of handphones. Neo reprises his role as the father of Liu Kok Pin from the first film. However in this film, he is a lot stricter than Mr. Liu from the first film.
• Huang Yiliang as Mr. Lim, the father of Chengcai
  It was revealed in the film that he had previously lived in an environment of thugs and an ex-convict, though was overprotective on Chengcai's actions. This is also his only film role to date under his Mediacorp management.
• Ng Suan Loi as Jerry and Tom's grandmother and the mother of Steven and mother-in-law for Karen
  She served as an advisor to Steven and Karen, and also shares experience as a parent to Steven.
• Selena Tan as the school principal
  A school principal with inarticulate Mandarin Chinese, as seen in the film she was attempting to speak fluent Chinese while mixing some with English. Tan previously portrayed the role as the mother of Terry Khoo from the first film, in which Tan spoke a majority of English dialogue during that film.
• Johnny Ng as Mr. Fu
  A school teacher specializes in Chinese language. He was praised by the school as a dedicated teacher who invested money on dictionaries and time as a remedial teacher, though sometimes strict in terms on the student's academic results. He was also the form teacher for Tom and Chengcai's class, which falls under the Normal (Technical) stream.
• Nick Shen as Mr. He
  A school teacher who teaches another class from the Express stream.
• Natalli Ong Ai Wen as Wang Jingjing
  Tom and Chengcai's classmate under Mr. Fu's class.
• Tan Xinyi as Xiaoxi
  Jerry's classmate and closest friend.
• Liu Lingling as Yang
  She was the coffee shop owner and a close friend of Lim. Following Lim's death at the end of the film, she was later a legal guardian for Chengcai.

Additional appearances in the film include Henry Thia as a sales owner in a bag store, and Jimmy Nah as an imposter police officer. The J-Team Production Academy also played a role as other students in the respective classes. Malaysian actress Asmiyati Asbah played as the maid for the Yeo family. Getai singer and another actress Anna Lim made a cameo appearance as a school principal in another school, while Yoo Ah Min portrays as an elderly who is a victim of a stolen necklace.

Production[]

After the release of I Not Stupid, a sequel was suggested, but Neo had difficulty finding a suitable topic.^[1] His inspiration was a book on appreciation education, a method of teaching developed by Chinese educator Zhou Hong.^[2] Through the movie, Neo hoped to capture the culture of Singapore at the turn of the millennium,^[3] and to explore the issue of poor parent-child communication.^[4]

Neo and Rebecca Leow co-wrote the script,^[5] which was completed in May 2005.^[1] I Not Stupid Too was produced by MediaCorp Raintree Pictures on a budget of S$1.5 million.^[6] Shanghai Film Studio had agreed to co-produce I Not Stupid Too with Raintree Pictures, but backed out because they found the film too liberal.^[7] The production crew included Daniel Yun as executive producer, Chan Pui Yin and Seah Saw Yan as producers, Ardy Lam as cinematographer and Mo Ju Li as sound editor.^[8] Besides writing and directing, Neo starred as Mr. Yeo and composed the theme song, which was sung by Hong Junyang.^[9]

Filming took place at Saint Hilda's Primary School, Presbyterian High School and other locations during the school holidays in June 2005.^[10] Neo hired real gangsters to act in several gangster scenes as he was dissatisfied with the extras. According to him, communicating with the gangsters was difficult, but when he decided to apply the lessons from the movie and praised them for a good take, they reacted well.^[11] Several members of the cast also said that I Not Stupid Too inspired them to communicate better with their family members.^[7] On 26 January 2006, distributor United International Pictures released I Not Stupid Too on 36 screens in Singapore.^[12]

Reception[]

With earnings of over S$1.41 million in the first six days, I Not Stupid Too set a record for the biggest opening for a Singaporean film.^[13] The movie rose to the top of the local box office, beating Jet Li's Fearless.^[14][15] In total, I Not Stupid Too grossed over S$4 million, becoming Singapore’s second-highest grossing movie after Money No Enough.^[6][16] The film was then released in Malaysia, where it made RM1.1 million, and Hong Kong, taking in HK$3.1 million.^[17] Following the success of the two I Not Stupid films, Neo has announced plans to make more sequels,^[3][7] as well as a remake set in China.^[18]

I Not Stupid Too was well received when it was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.^[19] It was also one of six Singaporean movies screened at the Singapore Season film festival in China. At the 2006 Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Youth, I Not Stupid Too captured the Children's Jury Award.^[20] The film was also nominated for Best Asian Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards, but lost to Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.^[21]

Critics praised I Not Stupid Too for its touching portrayal of the problems faced by Singaporean teenagers. According to a review in the South China Morning Post, the movie "presents a candid portrait of Singaporean society at odds with its stereotypically squeaky clean image".^[5] Nie Peng of Shenzhen Daily felt the film "captured the emotional depth and effectively conveyed the underlying theme of generation gaps",^[22] while movieXclusive.com reviewer Jolene Tan called it "a good local movie that will have [viewers] laughing in stitches and crying at certain points".^[23] However, I Not Stupid Too was also panned for being overly preachy: a reviewer for The Hindu said that the movie "feels like a public service program written by Singapore's social welfare department".^[24] Geoffrey Eu, a reviewer for The Business Times, commented that it "takes the line that the viewer needs to be clubbed into submission rather than persuaded via a more subtle line of reasoning".^[25]

Malay remake[]

A Malay language remake titled Aku Tak Bodoh (the translation of the title of the first film) was made as a Malaysian co-production between Grand Brilliance The film, starring Jalaluddin Hassan and Adibah Noor among others, was released on 2 December 2010 in Malaysian cinemas.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• I Not Stupid Too at IMDb