2 Young (2005)

2 Young sat unwatched in my DVD collection for over 12 years. Even knowing the cast and crew involved in it, I just never had any urge to watch a teen drama from Hong Kong that focused mainly on romance and family life. Of course, as the first review in my collection, I had to finally dust it off...

And my goodness - I only wish I had done so sooner. While a simple film, director Derek Yee (Shinjuku Incident) gives us a beautiful film that hits hard in many departments, from the great acting of its top cast, delivery of emotion, light hearted comedy, and capturing of real life that had my crying no less than 3 times during its running time.

As the son of the legend that is Jackie Chan, little Jaycee sure had some big shoes to fill in order to show he is his own person when it comes to having a film career. His debut was of course in the disappointing (although fun) Twins Effect 2, but with 2 Young we really get to see what he is very capable off!

As his first lead role, Jaycee nails it. His cuteness and charm plays well alongside Fiona Sit as his teen love interest, and you can't help that hope the both of them make it through the films running time without making you hate either of them.

Thankfully - they do.

Yee gathers an amazing cast to work with these young new stars in the shape of the amazing Eric Tsang and Teresa Mo who play Chan's parents, and the fantastic Anthony Wong and Candice Yu who star as hers. Regular face of many Hong Kong films Shiu Hung Hui co-stars as Wong's butler, and the ever popular Lam Suet gets a fun cameo as a headmaster.

I loved 2 Young. Maybe as a parent in my 40's with teenage kids, it was a little more relatable - but I know for sure that it never bored me or lost my attention for one second, and these days, that's a rare thing.

Overall: A new favourite of mine with an amazing cast, and the right amount of emotion without any of the cheese most Hollywood films of the same genre delivers!