After being
reborn at the end of the first Happy
Ghost, the happy ghost
has now grown up to be a highschool teacher named Sam Hong (Raymond Wong).
He is constantly teased by his (exclusively female) students though,
especially a quartet called the Meanies
Club, but since he still has some supernatural abilities left from his
former existence as ghost, he uses them to keep the girls in line, and
eventually, he even helps them to win a swimming competition. However,
when he tries to get intimate with Ms Lo (Jeane
Kanai), the principal of the
next-door boys’ school, his supernatural powers get in his way, so much
so that he wishes them gone - and when he meets his former self, the
happy ghost (also Raymond Wong of course), the ghost grants his wish. Without supernatural powers, Sam even seems to get somewhere with Ms Lo,
but then the girls from the Meanies Club play an especially mean prank on
him that not only destroys all his chances with her but also gets him
thrown out of school …which is when the girls realize they have gone too
far and that they have actually liked their teacher - and now they do
everything to get him his job back and get him back together with Ms Lo.
Both of which works out fine until Sam learns Ms Lo already has a
boyfriend, the especially mean coach (Melvin Wong) of another school - which is exactly the school his girls are playing volleyball against in a
tournament … and now Sam
has to get his powers back. Reluctantly, the happy ghost grants Sam his
powers, which he can now turn on by saying "I love you“ and turn off
by saying "sorry“ - which leads to the expected confusion at both
the volleyball game and a dance competition, but in the end, Sam gets the
girl … and another girl as well ...
The good news first: Happy Ghost 2 is a better film than the first Happy Ghost: It’s better
paced, features (slightly) more original jokes, and Raymond Wong seems to
feel more at home in the role of the underdog teacher than the unworldly
ghost. That said though, Happy Ghost 2 still isn’t exactly what anyone would call a good
movie, it’s just another teen comedy with supernatural elements tacked
on that’s as harmless as it’s meaningless, as run-of-the-mill as
it’s pointless. And the 1980’s style of the film is a bit hard to
swallow from today’s point of view. Still, at least one can be ever so
slightly entertained when watching the film, and there are indeed far worse movies around.
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