Defend your marriage by watching "The Marriage Defense"
Some movies even use tear-jerking plots as the main selling point. All of this shows that the plot plays a significant role in films. With screenwriters being included in major film festival awards, their status is self-evident, becoming an important promotional point for attracting audiences. To have a good script means the movie has already succeeded by half.
This is a story about contemporary urban men and women's relentless exploration and pursuit of marital relationships, pure human emotions, and healthy, happy lives. It is light-hearted, humorous, thought-provoking, and captivating.
White-collar worker Li Mei from a securities company and interior designer Guo Yang are at the "seven-year itch" stage of their marriage. The husband has a small reputation in the industry, their son is about to start elementary school, and their marital relationship is also quite good. Originally relatively content, Li Mei lost many opportunities due to her family and child. Seeing other women enjoy everything brought by career success, her inner grievances and losses often turn into a smokeless family war through trivial matters.
Lan Xin, a female boss of a leather goods company and Li Mei's college classmate, is ambitious and eager to become the queen of the industry. Her husband Xu Xiaoning gave up his job to be a stay-at-home dad and take care of the children. Li Mei admires Lan Xin's caring husband and successful career, while Lan Xin envies Li Mei's intelligence and prominent husband.
Their neighbor Old Chang is a remarried man with a much younger wife, living happily together. His model-turned-wife Chen Meng seeks happiness through marriage as a shortcut to avoid struggles, but she doesn't want to be a full-time housewife and admires working women. Old Chang runs a 4S store, nearing middle age, desires a stable life, and disagrees with his wife working outside.
Li Mei and Lan Xin's old classmate, the iron lady Yang Dan and her husband Old Yuan, have been striving together for years, achieving brilliant careers, and have always been seen as a model couple. However, they suddenly announce their divorce, which seems to strongly shake the three families, giving the wives a heavy blow. The husbands' reactions differ; Guo Yang feels that if a woman is too strong, it will unbalance the family and even reveals a hint of admiration and longing for Old Yuan's "escape from the city". Xu Xiaoning, however, takes pride in maintaining the stability of his marriage and family through sacrifice and tolerance. Old Chang's theory that "a man's divorce is a turning point for better fortune" makes Chen Meng even more determined to work.
After Yang Dan's divorce, she appears calm on the surface but is deeply hurt inside, forcing smiles in front of others and secretly crying. She frequently seeks companionship from her old classmates. Li Mei, out of pity, closely interacts with Yang Dan, influenced by her dominant thoughts and actions, gradually awakens her self-awareness. She realizes that her ordinary life centered around the family was not what she wanted, and with her abilities, she could achieve something like Yang Dan and realize greater life values. Especially when Yang Dan quickly overcomes the despair of her failed marriage through her successful career and regains vitality, Li Mei sees the hidden dangers and harms of overly sacrificing herself for the family.
After Yang Dan's divorce, to compete with her ex-husband, she focuses on managing the comprehensive service facility Blue Harbor, determined to make this heavily indebted real estate project into the largest and most luxurious commercial and service center in the city. She urgently needs a powerful assistant to help her manage tens of millions of yuan in monthly loan interest payments and find money and projects to fill this bottomless pit. Yang Dan appreciates Li Mei's integrity and abilities and sees through her inner desires and dissatisfaction, so she strives to pull her into business to help her get out of trouble. Although Li Mei is excited and eager by Yang Dan's persuasion, she is hesitant because she is attached to her family and worries about her husband and child. After painful contradictions and struggles, she finally can't resist the various temptations Yang Dan intentionally places before her eyes, resigns, and becomes Yang Dan's financial director. Li Mei now has new opportunities, and although Guo Yang is pleased, he does not want her work to affect family life or his own career, especially disliking his wife surpassing him in business. But constrained by the dignity of a man, Guo Yang verbally supports her while internally resisting, planting the seeds for future marital conflicts.
Sure enough, after Li Mei changes jobs, the family life immediately loses its former tranquility and harmony, leading to various disputes between the couple regarding children's education and household division. Then, Guo Yang unexpectedly becomes unemployed, and Li Mei seizes the opportunity to persuade him to be a "temporary manager" to help her through the difficult start of her career. Guo Yang strongly opposes Xu Xiaoning's lifestyle but cannot shirk responsibility, reluctantly becoming a "house husband." He feels that his wife being too strong hinders his development, and that the family and children drag him down, causing strong emotional reactions and abruptly straining the marital relationship. On the other hand, Xu Xiaoning, who also has a strong-willed wife, maintains a peaceful mindset, guiding Guo Yang to correctly view marriage, family, and career-oriented wives, making him accept reality and wait for opportunities. Xu Xiaoning tries to reform Guo Yang into wings, but Guo Yang firmly resists, creating endless drama.
Li Mei thrives in business, helping Yang Dan overcome various difficulties, gaining deep trust and appreciation, and rapidly rising to become the general manager of Blue Harbor. While commanding respect outside, she unconsciously assumes the "leader" role at home, giving orders and criticizing her husband, leading to constant arguments and debates between them. With no hope of returning to society soon, Guo Yang falls into a psychological crisis, leaving home and creating a separation, plunging the marital relationship into a dire situation. Several families unite to save Li Mei's marriage, with the lively and enthusiastic Xu Xiaoning playing a crucial role. Gradually influenced by Xu Xiaoning's moral charm, philosophy of life, and concept of living, Guo Yang re-understands the responsibilities of men in marriage and family, but still cannot accept the reality of his wife being stronger than him.
Li Mei finds her husband's intense arrogance and fragile sensitivity both disdainful and worrying, considering their years of feelings, adopts a tolerant and yielding attitude, striving to maintain the balance of the marriage and the stability of the family. Guo Yang, facing an arrogant and domineering wife, does not appreciate her high-handed concern.
Staying at home, Guo Yang discovers his new talent in indoor product design during his frustration, beginning to enthusiastically engage in it, shifting his focus and gradually accepting the current reality. At this point, Li Mei becomes worried about her husband's changes, fearing that he will lose his masculinity and ability, eventually becoming a coward and useless. Li Mei, changing her attitude, hires a nanny to take care of the child and housework, encouraging her husband to return to society. Guo Yang feels disrespected by his wife's control over his fate, sternly refuses, escalating the marital conflict again, bringing the family close to collapse. Considering the child, they calmly decide on a "trial divorce." The couple separates, each having their own social interactions, facing temptations, fraught with danger. When both realize the critical moment of harm, a fierce battle to defend their marriage and family inevitably erupts...
Under continuous desire for gain, Lan Xin becomes a profit-making machine. Xu Xiaoning makes various efforts to make her understand that "profit is not the purpose of life, life is the goal of profit," treating his wife with wisdom and humor. Old Chang uses pregnancy to tie down Chen Meng, but despite having a child, she continues to yearn. Unexpectedly injured, Old Chang temporarily manages the business, surprisingly showing management skills, impressing the employees, and forcing Old Chang to stay home and look after the child.
The three originally incompatible men end up in the same camp by chance. They discover that their territory has been completely taken over by their wives, leaving only a small space: the family, along with endless housework and trivial matters, transforming their inner resentment into fierce resistance desires, creating countless laughable stories...
While women savor the joy of career success, economic independence, and rising social status, men hide at home discussing how to deal with their wives and reclaim their dignity and authority! The three men join forces to do business locally, but "whatever they do fails, whatever they eat is gone." After some折腾 (struggles), though their situation hasn't changed, they find confidence and interest, alleviating the psychological pressure of becoming "house husbands."
Lan Xin faces a bottleneck in her career, and Xu Xiaoning voluntarily turns defeat into victory, advising her to learn to let go. Lan Xin remains unmoved until diagnosed with a terminal illness, realizing: "Family is one's last stronghold, a lover's embrace is the warmest harbor, and there are still many beautiful things waiting for you in life..." Xu Xiaoning replaces his wife in supporting the business, Guo Yang secretly engages in indoor product design and wins international awards, establishing his own studio, finally returning to society in a new form. Only Old Chang remains at home, waiting for his child to grow up, revisiting his old dream of spreading his wings.
After Yang Dan and Old Yuan's divorce, they both experience three ups and downs emotionally, realizing that divorce cannot solve all problems, and have to admit that the most suitable person is still each other, deciding to fall in love again...
The several couples grow through their squabbles; the husbands understand the joy of their wives achieving their careers, and the wives realize the loss of precious femininity in workplace battles. Both sides understand their dual responsibilities to society and family, realizing that the maintenance of marriage and emotion requires joint effort and payment from both spouses, and may even require selfless dedication and sacrifice! Several life-loving, courageous-seeking career women, supported by their husbands, rediscover the value and true meaning of happiness in life, finding the balancing point in marital relationships, achieving the good dream of having both family and career like "having both fish and bear's paw."
