Wise Wives and Foolish Husbands (1969)
Reviewed by: dleedlee on 2004-01-22

An entertaining farce of a film.

Ching Wan (Cheung Ching) advises and demonstrates to his buddies how to cheat on their wives. The wives catch on eventually and the tables become turned on the men. They end up kowtowing to their wives, all except holdout Ching Wan whose wife (Nam Hung) divorces him. Finally, he capitulates to her demands.

A time capsule of the '60s is captured here, from the lime green and yellow color schemes, the phones with the dial in the base, the Beatles' boots, and fringe dresses (worn by Lydia Shum, no less). Anyone remember Hullaballoo?

The cast of husbands includes Stanley Fung, Paul Chu Kong, Kenneth Tsang. Representing for the wives, Tina Ti Na, Nam Hung,Lydia Shum (a karate expert!) that I could identify. Chow Kat and Ko Lo-Chuen have minor roles, too, as a restaurant patron and father-in-law, respectively.

A recurring musical motif is the Odd Couple theme, but the film ends with the men marching down the street whistling to Colonel Bogey's March aka the theme from Bridge Over the River Kwai, while their wives follow them in a car and the film fades to black. Utterly appropriate.

There is one entertaining musical/dance scene completely without dialogue illustrating the men getting caught by their wives.
Reviewer Score: 7