GO LALA GO 2 (追婚日记 II) (2015)

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Andrew Chien　
Cast: Ariel Lin, Chen Bolin, Vic Chou, Nana, Li Jiahang, Vivian Wu
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Clover Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 4 December 2015

Synopsis: Stepping into her thirties, Du Lala is a driven and capable white-collar at DB. She is assigned to assist ‘Devil Maggie’ from her company’s New York HQ to negotiate for a merger with fashion label – SC. Just before the negotiation with SC, Maggie got into an accident, which forces Lala to stand in to front the negotiation meeting with SC team. Her brilliant speech impresses SC’s general manager Chen Feng. Lala has been dating Wang Wei, his photographer boyfriend for a few years now, but the latter is not ready for marriage. When Wang finally summoned enough courage to propose, he finds out about Lala’s “dubious” rapport with Chen Feng. Meanwhile Lala’s young assistant is very interested in Wang Wei and engages him for SC’s latest campaign. The project gathers Lala, Chen Feng and Wang Wei, creating awkward moments for the trio. Chen Feng falls for Lala and proposes during a celebration party… Lala is torn, will she say yes to Chen Feng or reconcile with Wang Wei…

Movie Review:

If you are somewhat well-versed with Taiwanese television dramas, Ariel Lin, Vic Zhou and Chen Bolin certainly do not look unfamiliar to you. As a front, Go Lala Go 2 has a strong main cast lineup that certainly evokes the curiosity to see what these three can collectively bring out in this movie.

Ariel Lin plays the role of Du Lala, the modern independent woman who strives to work her way up the social ladder. She has a steady boyfriend of many years, Wang Wei (played by Vic Zhou), who recently quite his sales job and made a career switch to become a professional photographer. Despite being in a stable relationship, Wang Wei always seem to skirt the topic of ‘marriage’. With a twist of events, Lala is forced into faking her identity, to present a pitch to potential business partner Chen Feng (played by Chen Bolin). Romance began to brew between Chen Feng and Lala, leaving Wang Wei in much disappointment and distress.

This romance-drama movie was clear and easy to follow. Basically the story is about stresses between work and relationship that a modern woman typically faces. Many times it would seem like an inevitable choice one has to make, but ultimately it really boils down to the motivation and the end goal in mind. In Lala’s case, it was clear she wanted to advance in her career through this once in a lifetime chance to prove her worth to the company. However after attaining what she thought she always wanted, she sacrificed on what she really needed – Wang Wei.

Ariel nailed her role as the lead, Lala. Her portrayal of Lala’s emotional journey while going through the struggles and tensions with work and relationship was good. Vic also has natural and great onscreen chemistry with Ariel, making the viewers even more involved in the relationship between Wang Wei and Lala. On the other hand, Bolin didn’t have much opportunity to shine in this movie as much as he did in his Taiwanese DramaIn Time With You (2011) with Ariel.

But to tell the truth, Go Lala Go 2 had too lean a story that it is not impressionable. While it has great objective and moral to tell even, it was delivered with little impact. The veteran and stellar cast lineup did salvage the movie in holding it together, but it did not manage to accomplish anything more than that. In its closing, although we could all expect to see a happy ending, it had a slight twist in the story and was a thoughtful way to end. That means the movie at least had a strong beginning and a good conclusion. 

Movie Rating:

(Learning from Lala: you don’t need to prepare yourself to receive true love)

Review by Tho Shu Ling