Marriage Is a Crazy Thing

A Korean movie from 2002. It is as sophisticated as any continental movie about modern relationships but because it is Korean the characters are touching and the intimate scenes aren't salacious. Uhm Jung Hwa has done some daring movies about relationships and she acts well and her character is likeable. Kan Woo Sung is quite believable here as the guy who can't commit to marriage. Their openness about relationships love and marriage is refreshing.

Starts of as an ordinary South Korean romantic drama then took turn into something that is close to films like Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached but then showed that it is much more than any of that. The similarities to the mentioned films stay only in the outline of the film as the difference in culture plays a big part there. It avoided the complexities of infidelity and showed the melancholic happiness that is found by the confused people who can't act above what the society is forcing upon them. The emotions are conveyed very subtly while the trivial events and the intimacy is portrayed in a straightforward manner without too much manipulation. The director being a former poet seem to understand exactly how to deal with real emotions.

Part of an accidental trilogy I created on somewhat strange "love" stories (this along with "Asako I and II" and "Meet Cute").

This film feels like a sort of straw-man argument against the monogamous constraints of human relationships. It reminded me of youthful discussions and/or indiscretions; indeed one of the two extremely attractive leads is a college professor. He comes complete with a swooning coed throwing herself at him. Is he 30 going on 19?

Instead our inveterate bachelor becomes a kept man to his lover whose contractual marriage then pays for their little love flat. While this arrangement I suppose is to show a sort of "true love" in the "s/he just gets me" mode, it felt like innocents playing house. And like a relationship stuck in the infatuation mode.

Anyways, the film may or may not work as a date movie. It sort of let's the viewer's heart and mind race against each other, and perhaps their loins quiver (actually pretty well done soft erotica).

The frisson of infatuation is definitely intoxicating, and the idea of an affair as a secret island for two to share, or in this room with a view, there's a lot of energy to be tapped from that. The allure of making love for hours versus trying to make a marriage over decades, here the former wins a bit too easily.

If marriages were as easy as flings, or as intensely enjoyable....that would be a crazy, and wonderful, thing. We could all be much older, but going on 19...

I always dug the title of an old Sonic Youth album "Confusion is Sex" - marriage might be crazy, but I think it strives to bring clarity to our short chaotic existence.

Marriage is a Crazy Thing is a fantastic twist on the classic love story.

Jun-young (Kam Woo-seong) is a man in his early thirties who has seen his friends and younger brother get married but has yet to open himself to a serious relationship. Rather he is happy floating through life with little direction or ambition.

Yeon-hee (Eom Jeong-hwa) is girl approaching thirty who is desperate to find a suitable husband, but is looking for a match based on social and economic suitability rather than love.

They meet on a blind date and quickly find that they are incompatible intellectually, but have an instant physical and emotional connection. Both are extremely practically minded, and as such decide to explore each other by starting a casual physical relationship, while she continues looking for more suitable husband and he avoids commitment.

This is a very modern tale, which is romantic, dramatic, smart, sexy and realistic. Turning the romance genre on it's head, and showing what dating is really like for modern thirty-somethings, who have emotional baggage, preconceived ideals and expectations, and too much self-interest to open themselves up to the possibility of a deeper kind of love.

Brilliantly written, excellently performed, smartly directed. If you think that Marriage really is a Crazy Thing then you will more than likely find a lot to love within this film.

Marriage Is a Crazy Thing is poet-become-director Yu Ha's second feature, starring Corean pop star Uhm Jung Hwa, now a veteran in the pop scene.

Yu, who also wrote the screenplay, crafts a story about a man, Junyoung, and a woman, Yeonhee, who meet on a blind date and begin a love affair, which only becomes complicated when she gets married. While I think many that watch this film will see a film about a woman who gets to "have her cake and eat it too", in terms of marrying for money and having a lover on the side (see the Eagles song, "Lying Eyes"), the protagonist is actually the man and I read it as a story about a guy who's both too stupid and cynical to understand this woman that he's become attached to.

The film features many cute moments, including times where the two pose as newlyweds or a married couple, which only seems to spike the irony in my mind that the main character doesn't seem to get. And so it appears to be a sort of tragedy and I read it as such. The photography is modern, clean and with a few touches of flourish in an otherwise classical style. The acting is believable and the story is interesting, but not quite engrossing. There are also a few lovemaking scenes with explicit dialog and a very mildly kinky twist.

I think I was most impressed with how neat the entire package is, from a well drafted story, to developed characters, all the visual and audio elements well put together and a rather interesting message that, I feel, is subtle enough that not everyone might get it. As such, I have to say that this was surprisingly enjoyable to watch and left me with a few things to think about as well, as I reach the upper years of my 20s, getting ready to step into the 30s that the principles live in. Recommendable (to mature audiences, of course). 8/10.