The Diary of a Big Man

When Chor Yuen revisited the theme of wives hunting down cheating husbands, he delivered a bold and hilarious comedy entirely distinct from his earlier The Diary of a Husband (1964). Set in Hong Kong’s booming 1980s, The Diary of a Big Man stars Chow Yun-fat as a charming stockbroker with an audacious dream: to have it all—literally. Caught in whirlwind romances with two women, played by Joey Wang and Sally Yeh, he secretly marries both, each blissfully unaware of the other. Armed with a meticulous schedule, Chow tries to balance his double life without arousing suspicion. Then reality starts sinking in. A series of accidents and escalating mishaps force him to enlist his best friend (Waise Lee) in increasingly outrageous cover-ups. When the truth inevitably emerges, the two wives join forces to teach him an unforgettable lesson.

While markedly different in tone and plot from its 1964 predecessor, The Diary of a Big Man still reflects Hong Kong’s then socio-economic conditions, showcasing the era’s affluence through lavish dining, hotel celebrations and glamorous lifestyles. When Chor Yuen reimagined the battle-of-the-sexes theme with a completely different storyline two decades later, it was perhaps Edmond Pang Ho-cheung’s Men Suddenly in Black (2003) that truly succeeded in remaking a film with the original plot of a group of wives banding together to expose their husbands’ infidelity.

Date	Time	Venue
27/4/2025 (Sun)	4:00pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

Post-screening talk with Eric Tsang Siu-wang

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