Gum Gai's entire focus was Kum's struggle in Hong Kong during its roughest times. It had a more meaningful sense as we could all relate to struggling to make it to the top and get some money. After the end of the first movie, the viewers get a feeling of hope, like we were born again and that we could do anything we wanted and achieve sucess.
The detail accounts of the events and problems that occured during Gum Gai and how Kum handled these situations was what made Gum Gai a interesting movie to watch.
Gum Gai 2 does the same thing, however switches to a more personal story rather then a social story during the second half.
The first part deals with how Kum sruggled through the SARS period of 2003, the darkest year in Hong Kong history. Many interesting characters are met, from the mentally challenged guy with an infatuation for hair to Leon Lai's doctor, everything plays out similar to Gum Gai 1. Even though we do not really know a whole lot about Leon Lai's character except about his wife and his job, the part where he broke down in the restraunt was sad.
The second part of the story, and actually the main story, dealt with a personal story. Kum's cousin returns to propose to her, at first through the flashbacks we see that he is a jerk who cheats Kum and other people, but then it gets extremely emotional at the end when they have to leave each other again.
I love how bits of the first movie was intertwined with the second movie to complete some of the unanswered questions in the first. This movie is great, and an emotional experience, but it felt like I was watching another melodrama when the second part came.
