Casamento é uma Coisa Maluca

When I fist read the plot, I though it was going to be one of those twisted Hollywood sexual social dramas but with an Asian touch to it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was indeed wrong.

This movie has some wild scenes but they don't seem incongruent or raunchy. They blend in with the social circumstances and with the personalities of the characters. The plot outlines the lives of two individuals who don't relish the idea of marriage which is, for lack of a better word, imperative for social harmony according to the Korean society. They however get along very well since they share amongst other things, a desire for closure and personal comfort.

The movie is very well directed with full credit going to its impeccable screenplay. The acting is fabulous with both the lead actor and actress doing a splendid job.

Overall, I would give this a 9/10

Thank you

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.

I have to comment that this movie is different from the typical asian romance. For one thing, the sex scene was very explicit but tasteful that it fit the story just right. The acting and story line are touching and true to life of the scenario of "I hate you", "I love you" relationship.

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.

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.