Few may have expected that the lightweight 2002 film My Wife Is 18 would score a reboot 10 years later, but that’s just what has happened with My Sassy Hubby. Writer-director James Yuen’s earlier picture was a modest success at the Hong Kong box office and was even remade in South Korea as My Little Bride (2004), but follow-ups are extremely rare this far down the track in the Hong Kong film scene and audiences can easily move on. As it turned out, however, Yuen had the makings of a most welcome sequel – one that not only returns attractive protagonists to the big screen in more mature roles, but also offers a self-contained romantic comedy delight for a new set of moviegoers.
In My Wife Is 18, 30-year-old university student Thirteen Cheung (Ekin Cheng) was lumped into an arranged marriage with 18-year-old schoolgirl Yoyo Ma (Charlene Choi), and the reluctant pairing developed into something special. Cut forward a decade, and Thirteen is busy as a psychology professor, Yoyo is a budding entrepreneur, and their marriage is in the doldrums. The hyper-energetic Ma is itching to see the world and start a family, but Thirteen is far too focused on work and not willing to give in to her wants. Worse still, a bombshell is about to hit about the validity of their marriage, Thirteen runs into a midlife crisis and becomes attracted to a mainland Chinese student (Zhang Xinyi), and a secret admirer from Yoyo’s past makes a sudden appearance. With Thirteen and Yoyo’s home life failing and would-be lovers stepping into their lives, it could take nothing short of a miracle to keep this relationship alive.
In revisiting their earlier roles, actors Cheng and Choi continue to deliver fine on-screen chemistry throughout ups and downs, with Cheng tackling the more complex of the lead characters, and newcomer Zhang impresses in her first Hong Kong picture. The best of the comedy is meanwhile supported by side players Joyce Cheng, Wong Cho-lam and J.J. Jia: Joyce Cheng is delightfully cast as Yoyo’s food-loving sister, while Wong – potentially deafening in a cinema – goes overboard in a straight-faced role as an exceptionally abrasive neighbour.
My Sassy Hubby has lots of ground to cover, but Yuen’s direction sees the film pass through all sorts of diversions with a light touch. Any key info from the earlier film is casually dropped in for the occasional flashback – just as Pang Ho-cheung’s Love in the Buff did in following up Love in a Puff last year, the new film works equally well as sequel and a one-off story. The troubled couple’s saga is meanwhile jazzed up with elements like mild tabloid scandal, sea-diving danger and excursions to the mainland and Australia. And as for its pop-romance core, My Sassy Hubby hits the right notes in building up to emotional resonance and sharing a sense of the lead characters’ ongoing development.
Yuen and his co-writers also gently insert Hong Kong social concerns into the narrative to incorporate a great feel for current city life. Hong Kong’s runaway property prices and the pressures they bring are worked in nimbly, both in scenes of middle-class couples illegally opting to live in industrial buildings and stresses at Yoyo’s boutique. And the relationships between Hongkongers and mainlanders are brought up too. While these aspects are never hammered in, Yuen’s film is nonetheless a key work among 2012’s string of Hong Kong productions with a highly local sensibility.
Tim Youngs