The Wedding Diary | 结婚那件事 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch


This year, there's three Asian movies that is out to cash in on celebrate the Valentine Day season. From Hong Kong - China, there's Romancing in Thin Air. From Taiwan - China, there's Love. Last but not least, from Singapore Malaysia, there's The Wedding Diary. 

The Wedding Diary is a comedy about the difficulties in preparing and executing the most important day in a couple's life. It features artists across the straits such as Ah Niu 阿牛 (Anniu), Elanne Kwong 江若琳, Kara Hui 惠英红, Zhu Houren 朱厚任, Marcus Chin 陈建彬, Chris Tong童冰玉 , Shaun Chen 陈泓宇 and Maggie Theng 邓妙华.


Ah Niu's recent debut as a director and leading actor for  Ice Kacang Puppy Love was pretty impressive. The Wedding Diary marks the second time for Ah Niu in the leading role. Not bad for a guy who don't really fit the usual handsome suave stereotype for a male lead in a movie. It would be interesting to see how he fares in this movie.

This review is made possible with special thanks to Clover Films.

The Plot

Daniel (Ah Niu) and Tina (Elanne Kwong) are the most unlikely couple. He is a nerdy engineer working in Singapore and comes from a small humble Hokkien family in Penang. She is a  pretty Singaporean who comes from a rich Cantonese family. But after a few failed relationship with unfaithful men, Tina decided to settle with the trustworthy Daniel.


While Daniel had always wish for a simple wedding, Tina's parents (Kara Hui and Zhu Houren) demanded a lavish wedding banquet to be held in Singapore. In order to "save face" and prove to his future in-laws that he is able to take care of their precious Tina, he agreed to the lavish wedding. Daniel's dad (Marcus Chin) was unhappy with the wedding dinner decision but reluctantly went with his son's decision.

What Daniel didn't expect was the mountainous amount of bills that this lavish wedding could rack out. It certainly make matters worse when one of his relatives has "stolen" the red packets that he has planned to use to pay the wedding banquet.

The desperate Daniel heads to the casino to recoup the missing money with his buddy (Shaun Chen). In order to keep the money problems from his wife, Daniel created lies to get away from his wife and dad. Tina finds Daniel action suspicious and started to question his faithfulness. Before they could resolve the matters at hand, Daniel received a call that informed him that his dad had met with a car accident on the way back to Penang.

The Perspective - The Wedding Diary Movie Review

The Wedding Diary was an enjoyable affair and the biggest credit for that should be given to the casting of Ah Niu and Elanne Kwong as the unlikely couple. Ah Niu's endearing (and adorable) ugly toad persona match well with Elanne Kwong's sweet wholesome looks. Another highlight of the movie would be the funny dialogues delivered with local dialects. It made some of the recycle gags worked and it's something other countries would not be able to reproduce. It was so much fun laughing at Daniel's predicament with the over the top wedding and money problem.

It's a pity that movie took a sharp turn to "down your throat" melodrama and "in your face" advertisement for the movie's main sponsor "SOLVIL et TITUS" (a watch company). That didn't work for me and the forceful product placement had a jarring effect. It makes me wonder why would anyone want to pay to watch an extended advertisement? The extended advertisement also had an negative effect for SOLVIL et TITUS as I for one would not want to buy a watch that spoils after two years.

But nevertheless, the general feel during the movie was that the female audience enjoyed both the comedy and melodrama aspect of The Wedding Diary. Their laughter and sobbing were heard and easily detected. Given that this movie ended with a good vibe about relationship after all the obstacles and tragedy that were thrown in this two love birds' way, I would say that The Wedding Diary is a good date movie to bring your potential other half to watch on Valentine Day.

P.S. Another advantage of The Wedding Diary as a date movie for guys: It's so much easier to look as good or even better than Ah Niu if you compare it with other impossibly handsome male leads in other romantic movies (wink Wink).

Rating: ***