Review | The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be film review: Dada Chan tackles pregnancy in quirky relationship comedy
- Dada Chan plays a career woman surprised to find herself pregnant and warring with her scheming mother-in-law who hires a maternity coach
- More a series of vignettes than a thoroughly plotted narrative, the film has its funny moments and dialogue is sharp
3/5 stars
The myriad of concerns and worries of a pregnant woman are bluntly relayed in this second feature by writer-director Luk Yee-sum, an occasional writer for Hong Kong filmmaker Pang Ho-cheung. An amusing relationship comedy, The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be maintains the sassy vibe of Luk’s directing debut, the friendship/prostitution drama Lazy Hazy Crazy , while serving up some inconvenient truths about motherhood and marriage.
Dada Chan Ching ( All’s Well, End’s Well 2020 ) plays Carmen, a high-flying public relations manager who swears by a childless lifestyle with the acquiescence of her husband, Oscar (Kevin Chu Kam-yin, Lion Rock ). Just when she looks set for promotion to an overseas director position, however, the career-driven woman is shocked to learn that she’s expecting. Cue anger and hatred towards the unborn.
The eagerness of her mother-in-law Margaret (Candice Yu On-on) to secure a grandchild – which sees her hire an in-demand maternity coach, Tam (Louis Cheung Kai-chung), even before the announcement of the pregnancy – adds to Carmen’s annoyance. Once her plans to seek an abortion are discovered by her loving husband, the couple swiftly decide to embrace their new roles as expecting parents.
While the film’s Chinese title translates as “Revenge of the Baby”, the film’s English title provides the more accurate description of Luk’s story: this is less a drama about Carmen’s struggle to accept her child than a fragmented and largely unfocused account of her months of pregnancy – a bit like a sitcom. What it lacks for narrative momentum, the film makes up for with scattered moments of quirky humour and sharp dialogue.
Plenty of insights into motherhood are revealed in Carmen’s interaction with her best friends (Jennifer Yu Heung-ying, Venus Wong Man-yik and Koyi Mak Tsz-yi), all with different experiences of expecting. Carmen’s troubled childhood under a now-estranged mother, as well as her difficult relationship with a teacher (Bo Pui-yu) while at secondary school, are also hinted at to add depth to the character.
The subplots about Oscar are less engaging. A professional basketball player, his efforts to seek an office job lead nowhere; an encounter with a zealous inspirational speaker (Ng Siu-hin, hamming it up) is also too awkward to entertain. The social club for immature fathers that Oscar is subsequently invited to join is far too goofy to be taken seriously, while a late twist accusing Carmen of infidelity is unnecessary.
After a string of supporting roles of the decorative kind, Chan seizes her moment in the spotlight with a dramatic performance that finally allows her to demonstrate her range. It helps that the screenplay, co-written by Luk and Mint Chen Yuk-ying, doesn’t get bogged down in Carmen’s conflict with any one character and thus lose the bigger picture. The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be is best viewed without preconception.
