The Diary of a Big Man 好吧日记

Successful broker Ah-Fat (Chow Yun-Fat) has everything any man could want — and then some, since he has two wives. One of them, Sally (Sally Yeh), is a flight attendant he married in Paris, while the other, Joy (Joy Wong), owns a fashionable boutique and wed him in New York. Naturally, neither woman knows about the other, and Ah-Fat takes great pains to hide each one's rival from her, but as the saying goes, what's done in the dark will come to light — and the two women, joining forces, cook up a fine prank for their shared husband...

Impressions: A fine example of "comedic Chow Yun-Fat" — warm, simple, and funny exactly as much as the viewer could wish for. Thank God the film wasn't made by Wong Jing, who would clearly have stuffed it, given half a chance, with half-undressed ladies, dumb below-the-belt gags, and tons of kung fu, so The Diary of a Big Man turned out to be a wonderful romantic comedy, thoroughly old-fashioned and classic in its traditions.

I'm not very fond of comedies of situation — I always feel somehow awkward watching someone misunderstand someone else, beat around the bush, and still manage to literally crawl out of the situation at the last second. It gets on your nerves. And The Diary of a Big Man is exactly that kind of film. No, don't get me wrong — the film really is wonderful, but it will fray your nerves considerably. Through its entire first half, Chow Yun-Fat lies, wriggles, arranges absurd coincidences, and constantly sets up his friend Waise Lee, forever making him the scapegoat in the eyes of his wives. I don't even know why Lee puts up with it all, but credit where it's due — it all looks very funny. The girls play airheads whom Chow juggles with extraordinary ease, and this display of high flying is definitely worth watching. On top of that, all the actors perform superbly! Chow overacts slightly, but that generally fits the film's overall style, and besides, his jokes are simply excellent (at the start, when he's driving, the radio announces: "Chow Yun-Fat has once again won the award for Best Actor," to which Chow mutters: "Damn, Chow again... Who is he anyway? It's obviously all rigged..."). The girls do their best to keep up with him, but Carrie Ng stands out especially in her not particularly major role — it was after this film that I understood why she is so loved in Hong Kong. She's exactly the kind of girl who, though not especially pretty in the face, can act wonderfully and, when she wants to, look very attractive.

Anyway, I've gotten a bit distracted — after all, this is about the film as a whole, in which, besides all of the above, the soundtrack certainly deserves a mention. Three people wrote it, and the music fits the film like a glove! Wonderful melodies plus several musical numbers, one of which ("Oh! Very Nice!") is worthy of earning the film an extra point on its own. Don't miss it!

Awards: HKFA nomination for Best Original Film Song (Chow Yun-Fat with the song "Diary of a Big Man").