Брак - сумасшедшая вещь (2002) Online

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.

spoilers

Those familiar with the Korean romance that is getting more and more global attention may or may not agree with what I say about Marriage Is A Crazy Thing. On the surface, Marriage seems to be very different from other movies in this genre where a kiss would often seem too explicit an expression of love. Underneath the somewhat shocking explicit sex scenes (for a Korean movie), Marriage is, however, another Korean romance with the characteristic qualities. (I'm not going to repeat the examples I listed in my comments on Lover's Concerto (2002), another Korean romance).

The plot of Marriage remotely resembles that of Same Time Next Year (1978) which in turn was adapted from a Neil Simon play, I believe. The resemblance however is only superficial.

In Marriage, they meet at a blind date, at the introduction of a mutual friend. He is, however, not a callow youth, nor she a blushing maiden. The first date winds up in a hotel room, as they jump into bed the instant they close the door.

As the story unfolds, we see more of the personalities behind the two pleasant looking faces. He is a happy-go-lucky, flirty part-time professor, financially insecure and still living with his parents. Fascinatingly all at once both coy and coquettish, she has a mind of her own, seeking romance but not forgetting financial security. While he shuns any relationship that threatens to become a permanent commitment, she ponders over pursuing such a relationship with him which will likely lead to a life of insufficiency, if not outright poverty.

We see there relationship evolve, along a mildly rocky path, until she marries a medical doctor, for obvious reasons. Taking a slight turn, their relationship continues, as they jointly rent an apartment and share whatever time she can snatch from her conventional life. This becomes somewhat reminiscent of Oskar Werner's Interlude (1968), but with his and her role reversed. We see how they gradually come to a realisation that while they have all this time tried to play cool, they care for each other more than they are ready to admit.

It is interesting to observe that by the end of the movie, she has not changed much, knowing what she wants, knowing what she can handle, as she had been right from the beginning. He, on the other hand, has lost much of the carefree self-assurance, worn down by increasing consciousness of his own financial inadequacy.

For people who have enjoyed the Korean romance genre, Marriage is an interesting variation that brings something new, but at the same time staying within the familiar grounds. Certainly recommended.

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.

Hip hip hurray! Quite a number of modern Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese women should feel pretty happy after seeing the retributive act of Yeon-hee to "men". She fulfils many women's wishes of money and sex, though not from one body but two (or even more if one dares ^-^): getting hold of her doctor husband's money, social status and the sexual satisfaction with Joon-young, in addition, without being noticed or caught.

Though achieving better economy and international status, South Korea is basically a patriarchal, Confucius and conservative society where every family tries hard to keep everything in harmony, no matter true harmony or artificial. In general, women still don't have many to choose for their life, to have a "capable" (money + well-respected job like medical doctor or lawyer, and so that's why Joon-young is the odd man out on Yeon-hee's marriageable-men list) husband henceforth a stable family is still the ultimate destination of their life (even though it is already 21st century today and the tenth planet has been discovered in the Solar System we are living in). Many Korean women struggle to tolerate their husbands' affairs, no matter that's long or short term fun because financially they maybe depend on their husband to have a better or even luxurious life, or they just don't want to lose face even the marriage has become nominal. Seeing Yeon-hee's devilish but "elegant" machinations, the repressed women may give their cheer and applause.

The wedding at the beginning is a telling symbol that "marriage" is the pillar shoring up the society and human relationship. People still holds the thought that the elder in the family should be married off before the other younger ones. Joon-young somehow is true to himself, he doesn't want to commit to something he doesn't believe, unlike his brother, who is getting married with his fiancée and struggling painfully to keep the dangerous fire burning with his old flame. Hypocrite!

Hormone ignites the libido but heart searches for truth. While the campus hunk is in perplexity and her nerd hubby in the dark, she is the one who has the last laugh. Every play has its ending, happy or not. Joon-young needs to think about the ending with this merry wife of another man.

Even since the Korean TV soap opera "Autumn in my heart" ("Gaeul donghwa") invaded Hong Kong in 2000, people here suddenly got crazy about the Korean pop culture: TV, electronic games and thousands and hundred of movies. You can see that many Korean movies on show in town but not other places. If Korean movies can reach the international stage, some credits should be given to Hong Kong film-makers, for sure, anyway.

A good light entertainment for a Saturday afternoon, it just cost me US$0.13 to rent, what more can I ask for?

Oh, by the way, I am eager to know how Germaine Greer views this movie.

Marriage Is A Crazy Thing is a film that talks about how love conquers all in the most unusual situations. Society in Korea deems that marriage must be complete before age 30. Marry a man, and make love with another!

Joon-young gets a blind date for being the best man at a friend's wedding. He's a charming and smart college lecturer who believes in free sex. Yon-hee is a daring and sexy lighting designer. Through a long relay of superficial questions, they get drunk. They figured it'd be cheaper to get a motel room than to get a cab.They go all the way. They both expected different things from each other. Yon-hee wanted to marry a well-to-do doctor and keep Joon-young on the side for sex. Will she be successful?

The movie is about two people that met on a blind date that never want to admit that each has already fallen in love with each other after spending a one-night stand. Or in other words, it is about two people who don't want to take their relationship to the next level after being engaged in a fling. I think that a better title for this film is Love Is A Crazy Thing.

The acting was great. Kam Wu-Sung,who plays an English professor, shows that he does not need to over-act to sympathize with his character. While Eum Jung-Hwa,the adulteress, never disappoints as well. The film started slow but the two lead characters were able make it interesting.

This film is another reason why Koreans will always be considered as one of the most creative when it comes to world cinema.Highly recommended and it deserves an excellent rating for me.

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.

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.