Number 2 Review: Mark Lee’s Drag-Queen Sequel Doesn’t Soar As High As The First Movie, But Still Works As A Fun Thailand Travelogue
The sequel to the 2020 Golden Horse Award-nominated queer-com doesn’t live up to its name…. in a good way.

Number 2 (NC16)
Starring Mark Lee, Jaspers Lai, Kiwebaby Chang, Darius Tan, Gadrick Chin, Estovan Reizo
Directed by Ong Kuo Sin
Here's the deal about Number 2.
It’s actually number 2 behind the stronger, smarter original film, Number 1. But it’s still a good, fun number 2.
Number 1, in 2020, was a focused, enjoyable induction into a bizarre hidden world of drag queens. Number 2, this time, is a goofier, more frivolous escapade into Thailand, Asia's undisputed capital of queer shows.
Make no mistake. Director Ong Kuo Sin's marginal-folk pics are a terrific made-in-Singapore film series. Like Pitch Perfect turned into B***h Perfect.
Alternately gaudy and astute, funny and poignant, they’re entertaining, purposeful and well-written dramedies powered by great stage flamboyance, catchy songs, tight chemistry and spot-on performances by its winsome, mostly local cast.
Especially from Mark Lee who's so convincing in his world-wearied element transforming from no-job ah beng, Chow Chee Beng, to big-hit ah gua (cross dresser), Moulin, in the first flick, he deservedly snagged a Best Actor nomination at the Golden Horse Awards.
Okay, Number 2 cannot match the original tale in terms of the fascinatingly complex mama-drama camaderie inside the closet-corset dressing room. Because, in sequelitis mode, it’s moved on to simpler papa drama.
Instead of sisterhood, it’s now parenthood. Chow has issues with his English-speaking, Chinese-mocking westernised young son, Mason (Estovan Reizo), who's glued to his mobile phone and calls his dad, “bro”.
The kid, obsessed with social media, wants to be an online star posting money-making videos. Despite Tik Tok being branded “Tiong Tok” (struck by poison in Hokkien) by Chow, the boy even loves uploading his father's uncool-hasbeen crosser humiliations for all to see.
Meanwhile, one of Chow's drag-queen teammates, Money (Jaspers Lai), has even bigger problems with his rich, powerful, thug-boss Thai father who's revealed in a comical can-suddenly-speak-Thai eureka scene in a jail cell up north.
Look, PG (parental guidance) is laudable. The mum, Marie (Gina Tan), is now Chow's unwavering supporter. But when it comes to drag queens, I prefer to be dragged along by RA (racy adults).
Chow, no longer centrestage as the AGM — ah gua manager — of the Queens performing group, is a property agent who finds that his raunchy past with makeup cannot be, well, lipsticked away. After an altercation with pranksters who trick him into dressing up for a house sale, he loses his realtor job and is barred from performing in Singapore at a drag court trial headed by guest-star Kumar, returning here as a stern supreme-queer judge.
Desperate to pay the bills, the Queens and Daddy's little vid-boy hightail to Thailand to enter a big-deal drag-show competition. They come up against foreign super groups who turn their Bugis Street-cosy la-la routines — bungling a low-class “Three bowls of pig trotters” song against Toni Basil's pulsating anthem, ‘Mickey’ — into hysterically epic disasters.
Upping the loony tunes, the band of sisters battles a gang of baddies who try to stop their participation. Including smashing the foodstall of their uninhibitedly cheerful ally, Sunny Baby (Ittikorn Sathutum), outside their cheap Siam Girl Ri-La hotel. Shangri-la, geddit?
I tell you, it's jokes like that and amusing scenes like these — unexpected jail-cell revelation, motorbike chase through a crowded market, Thai ghost gag, a journey to a temple run by Monica the monk (I'm not going to reveal who plays him/her/them) — that director Ong, with a script co-written by Jaspers Lai, makes this movie so light-heartedly enjoyable.
My peeve is that the deeper side of this story — the identity crisis within — that was so well fronted by the alluring, pouting Pearl (Taiwanese trans actress Kiwebaby Chang), breakout star of the first film, has now been sidelined to basically being non-existent.
The best moment here is this true trans gal telling the un-PC pretend-cross dresser, Chow, that when she puts on a dress, she can take care of herself and doesn't need his help against the bullies.
When abnormal adults clash like this, the normalcy which ensues is really good to see.
Number 2 should have put in more numbers of this. (3.5/5 stars)