Effective communication is essential in maintaining harmony and emotional connection within marital relationships, especially in cultures that value indirectness and social harmony. Lack of communication skills can reduce connection between spouses, which will lead to psychological problems, marital burnout, and even divorce. Marital communication is often intricately linked to emotional complexity. Therefore, engaging suitable strategies is crucial to maintain a stable and satisfying relationship. This study examines the use of politeness strategies in the marital discourse of spouses in the Chinese film “When a Peking Family Meets Aupair.” The study aims to identify the politeness strategies employed by the spouses and investigate the key factors that influence their choice of such strategies. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory and Gu Yueguo’s (1992) Politeness Principles were used to analyse 340 utterances between the couple. Through qualitative content analysis, the study reveals that the husband predominantly employs Positive Politeness to foster closeness, while the wife prefers Off-Record strategies to manage conflict indirectly. The choice of strategy adopted by the spouses is influenced by social distance, power dynamics, rank of imposition, and cultural norms. These findings provide insights into the relationship between language, culture, and relationship dynamics, offering practical implications for interpersonal pragmatics, applied linguistics, and marital counselling.