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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. It 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.
| I Not Stupid Too | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Jack Neo |
| Written by | Jack Neo |
| Produced by | Daniel Yun |
| Starring | Ashley Leong Shawn Lee Joshua Ang Natalli Ong Ai Wen Johnny Ng Xiang Yun Jack Neo Huang Yiliang Selena Tan Ng Suan Loi |
| Music by | Li Yi Redwan Ali |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United International Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | Singapore |
| Languages | Mandarin Hokkien English |
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.
The film 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: only Money No Enough grossed 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 largely positive, though some criticized the film as overly preachy. A serialised version of the film was aired on Channel 8, and a Malay-language remake was produced four years later.
A standalone sequel titled I Not Stupid 3, is scheduled to be released on 6 June 2024.
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The plot revolves around the lives of Jerry Yeo (Ashley Leong), his older brother Tom Yeo (Shawn Lee) and their friend Lim Chengcai (Joshua Ang). 8-year-old Jerry enjoys the performing arts and has the lead role in his school concert, while 15-year-old Tom is technologically inclined and a talented blogger, Karen and Steven Yeo's (Xiang Yun and Jack Neo) busy schedules give them little time to spend with their children, leading to a strained relationship. With his mother absent, 15-year-old Chengcai was raised by his ex-convict father Mr. Lim (Huang Yiliang), whose fighting skills he inherited.
During a school check for mobile phones, Tom is caught with a pornographic VCD. As his form teacher and Chinese language teacher Mr. Fu (Johnny Ng) confiscates it, Chengcai argues with him and eventually assaults him together with Tom. Consequently, the school principal (Selena Tan) decides to expel Chengcai due to multiple disciplinary records and subject Tom to public caning respectively. As their punishments tear them further from their families, Tom and Chengcai join a local street gang; as their initiation, they are forced to shoplift an iPod. However, they are caught by two conmen posing as police officers, who demand that they pay $2,000 within two days or be arrested.
While tutoring his sons, Mr. Yeo tells them that people will pay $500 for an hour of his time. Jerry, who wants his parents to come to his school concert, starts saving money and eventually resorts to stealing once. After he is caught, a furious Mr. Yeo canes the boy, but calms down when the boy comes clean and explains that he wanted $500 to "buy" an hour of his father's time; stealing was a last resort. This prompts Mr. and Mrs. Yeo to read Tom's blog and realise how unappreciated and alienated their children feel.
Meanwhile, out of the blue right on the same day Jerry's caning occurred, Tom and Chengcai rob an old lady of her necklace, but regret their action and try to return it to her. A struggle occurs, and Chengcai bumps into several gangsters, while Tom's mobile phone falls out of his pocket. The phone hits the ground, accidentally calling Mr. Yeo, who is doing a presentation about 3G phones for a contract worth $3 million.
Later, the gangsters whom Chengcai bumped into earlier beat him up. Mr. Lim, who happens to be nearby, tries to protect his son, but is beaten and falls down the stairs as a result, which causes him to be rushed to hospital. Meanwhile, with Tom, Mr. Yeo rushes off to the scene and pleads with the old lady to give Tom a second chance. When the police arrive, she tells them she made a prank call. Two days later, Mr. Yeo meets the conmen and gives them thousands of dollars of hell money; the conmen are then arrested by real police officers who have been waiting in ambush close by. On his deathbed at the hospital, Mr. Lim tells Chengcai that he loves him and that he should pursue his talent for fighting. Witnessing this scene, the principal is touched and allows Chengcai to return to school. The boy eventually becomes an internationally recognised martial artist. Having finally understood their children, the Yeo parents and Tom watch Jerry's concert, much to his delight.
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- Ashley Leong as Jerry Yeo
The younger brother of two of the Yeo family, and doubled as the film's narrator.- Charles Chan played as infant Jerry, and Raffles Neo played as baby Jerry during the film's epilogue.
- Shawn Lee as Tom Yeo
The older brother of two of the Yeo family. - Joshua Ang as Lim Chengcai
A close friend of Tom and a good martial arts street fighter. - Natalli Ong Ai Wen as Wang Jingjing
Tom and Chengcai's classmate under Mr. Fu Dabing's class. - Johnny Ng as Mr. Fu Dabing
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. - Xiang Yun as Karen Yeo
The mother of the Yeo family and is a magazine editor. - Jack Neo as Steven Yeo
The father of the Yeo family who is a salesman of handphones. - 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. - Selena Tan as the school principal of Tom and Chengcai's secondary school
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 (portrayed by Huang Po Ju, who isn't part of this film) from the prequel, in which she spoke a majority of English dialogue during the previous installment. - 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. - Nick Shen as Mr. Hao Letian
A school teacher who teaches another class from the Express stream. - Liu Lingling as Yang/Lady Boss
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. - Tan Xinyi as Xiaoxi
Jerry's classmate and closest friend.
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 Lin Ruping made a cameo appearance as Mrs. Alicia Tan, a school principal in another secondary school, while Yoo Ah Min portrays as an elderly who is a victim of a stolen necklace.
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After the release of the prequel film, 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 film, 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] This film was produced by Raintree Pictures on a budget of S$1.5 million.[6] Shanghai Film Studio had agreed to co-produce this film 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 also starred as Steven 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 film and praised them for a good take, they reacted well.[11] Several members of the cast also said that this film inspired them to communicate better with their family members.[7] On 26 January 2006, distributor United International Pictures released the film on 36 screens in Singapore.[12]
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With earnings of over S$1.41 million in the first six days, this film set a record for the biggest opening for a Singaporean film.[13] The film rose to the top of the local box office, beating Jet Li's Fearless.[14][15] In total, this film grossed over S$4 million, becoming Singapore's second-highest-grossing film 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 prequel and this film, Neo announced plans to make more sequels,[3][7] as well as a remake set in China.[18]
This film was well received when it was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.[19] It was also one of six Singaporean films screened at the Singapore Season film festival in China. At the 2006 Moscow International Film Festival for Children and Youth, this film 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 this film for its touching portrayal of the problems faced by Singaporean teenagers. According to a review in the South China Morning Post, the film "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, this film was also panned for being overly preachy: a reviewer for The Hindu said that the film "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]
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A Malay language remake titled Aku Tak Bodoh (the translation of the title of the first film) was made as a Malaysian co-production with Grand Brilliance.[26] The film stars Jalaluddin Hassan and Adibah Noor among others, and was released on 2 December 2010 in Malaysian cinemas.
A sequel began production in June 2023 and was released on 6 June 2024 during the school holidays in Singapore.[27][28] It was also released in Malaysia on 13 June 2024, in China on 16 August 2024 and in Taiwan on 20 September 2024. [27]
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