The Diary of a Husband (2K Digital Version)

Dir: Chor Yuen
Orig Story/Scr: Ching Suet-mun (aka Yeung Po-hei)
Prod Co: Lan Kwong
Cast: Ting Ying, Cheung Ying-choi, Keung Chung-ping, Lam Yim, Lam Bun
1964 | B&W | DCP | Cantonese | 103min

Chor Yuen directed two films exploring how wives confront their husbands over suspected infidelity. Sharing the same Chinese title, their English titles also bear striking similarities despite being made over twenty years apart. In The Diary of a Husband, Kong (Cheung Ying-choi), a sharp-witted urbanite with a stable white-collar job, enjoys close camaraderie with three office colleagues. Their spouses, led by the boss’s wife, form a brigade to expose unfaithful husbands. When their boss (Keung Chung-ping), a henpecked philanderer, makes unwanted advances towards his new secretary (Lam Yim), a series of misunderstandings leads Kong’s wife (Ting Ying) to wrongly suspect her own husband of cheating.

Set in the context of Hong Kong’s emerging middle class in the 1960s, the film provides a snapshot of an economy on the rise. It portrays modern nuclear families embracing leisure pursuits and refined tastes, as well as contemporary office settings becoming a key site for human relationships. From flower arranging to movie-going, the characters’ lives reflect the aspirations of a city finding its economic footing. Cantonese cinema of the era began to depict the burgeoning bourgeois lifestyle alongside traditional working-class struggles. Chor Yuen’s masterful direction in this film, marked by perfectly timed comedic beats and well-delivered dialogue, brings charm and sophistication to the battle of the sexes—a perennial favourite in Hong Kong cinema.

Courtesy of First Distributors (HK) Limited

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