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Diary of A Big Man
also known as: Big Husband's Diary

year of release: 1988

Principal cast.

Chow Ting Fat:	Chow Yun-Fat
Chi-Hung:	Waise Lee Chi-Hung
Joey:	Joey Wong
Sally:	Sally Yeh

Additional info.

IMDb link:	http://us.imdb.com/Title?0094935
other links:	Dai Jeung Fu Yat Gei sung by CYF, Sally Yeh and Joey Wong is available in .mp3 format.
other links:	The Dai Jeung Fu Yat Gei music video from the film, subtitled in English.

version reviewed: DVD (Universe 5146)

Ratings.

audio:	9 of 10
video:	8 of 10
subtitles:	8 of 10
story:	9 of 10
performances:	9 of 10
CYF:	9 of 10

If you like movies with lots of sight gags, pretty girls, screwball comedic plot twists and Chow Yun-Fat in every scene, you will love this movie.

Chow Yun-Fat plays Chow Ting Fat, a yuppie stockbroker who becomes a bigamist by accident: he buys a wedding ring and before he can decide which one to give it to, it falls out of his pocket and lands on lovely boutique owner Joey Wong's finger. When he goes to tell his flight attendant sweetheart Sally that he has to break off with her, she cheers him up by slipping a wedding ring on his finger. See, it's all perfectly innocent!

Considering himself a clever kind of guy, Ah Fat enlists the aid of his best buddy and co-worker Chi Hung (Waise Lee Chi Hung) to help him keep his wife situation straightened out. With such conveniences as having dual apartments (and managing to sleep in each one each night, or at least a part of each night) and a cell phone in hand to call up the hapless Chi Hung each time he gets in a jam, Ah Fat manages to make it through almost an entire year before the jig is finally about to be up.

For those to whom it's impossible to find humor in the situation of a man deceiving two wives because he's too nice to let one of them go, you'd probably better skip this one and see Kramer Versus Kramer again or something. Otherwise keep your wits sharp as you try and follow the incredibly complex schemes that Ah Fat comes up with trying to keep his two beauties separate and happy. Waise Lee makes a great nerve-wracked straight man to Chow Yun-Fat's quivering bundle of confident (but bumbling) energy; Joey Wong and Sally Yeh are stunning in their designer dresses and sweet expressions and there is an odd little side-story of the romance between a female police sergeant and her chief investigator (Eric Cheng in yet another small role - he pops up everywhere), who sniffs something a little odd about Chow Ting Fat and his ability to be two places at once.

Featured in this film is the musical interlude of Chow Yun-Fat singing "Daai Jeung Foo Yat Gei" ("Big Husband's Diary", which is the alternate English title of this film); this song, as incomprehensible as it might be to those who haven't yet cultivated an appreciation for the unique vocal stylings of CYF, was nominated for Best Original Film Song at the Hong Kong Film Awards for 1988. This is one of those things that you just have to see to believe. Suffice it to say that at one point CYF, Joey Wong and Sally Yeh are dressed up as mariachi singers and poor Waise Lee is playing the drums and having glasses of water thrown on him.

My favorite scene from the film is probably the one of Chow Ting Fat driving to the airport, listening to an awards show on the radio, and of course we hear that the award has been given to none other than Chow Yun-Fat. "He won again?" Chow Ting Fat says in disgust. "It must be a set-up."

For those who have seen such films as The Killer and Hard Boiled but none of CYF's comedies, you really are missing out on at least half of his talents, maybe more. He has a genuine flair for comedy, and seems to truly enjoy letting himself be caught with his pants around his ankles, handcuffed to a bed and then have his underwear sliced up by two angry women, stagger around with his glasses hanging from an ear, singing and slinging stir-fry on passers-by and of course speaking a couple of octaves higher than his usual deep and masculine voice. Actually the only staple CYF gag which doesn't appear in this film is for some reason he escaped dressing in drag.

Then again, he made up for that in The Eighth Happiness, released that same year. I guess that counts.





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