My Little Bride-Boeun is an innocent 15
year old high school girl and Sangmin is a playboy who comes
back to Seoul during his last year of University to complete
an internship. The unlikely pair get forced into an arranged
marriage because of a promise that Boeun’s grandfather
made to Sangmin’s grandfather when they were in the
military together. The problem is, the two of them have
known each other since childhood and they really only think
of each other like brother and sister. On top of that, neither
one of them is mature enough to be married.
Boeun’s grandfather pretends he’s dying in order
to manipulate the reluctant pair to get married. They finally
do it to please the family but, they want to keep it a secret
from everyone else. They move into an apartment together,
but until Boeun gets into University, the parents don't
want them to sleep in the same room.The mom tells them no
kids till graduation, but what she means is don't do the
wild thing. Excluding the sex part, Boeun is still expected
to play the role of a wife by cooking and doing her husband's
bidding. (It's somehow unsettling to see a little girl trying
to play this role.) Things get even more complicated when
Boeun falls for the local high school hunk and her husband,
Sangmin, gets his internship assignment at Boeun’s
high school!
Even though the meddling families had only good and pure
intentions for their kids, to my western eyes, this movie
seems to be built on a somewhat kinky premise. First of
all, arranged marriages don’t really exist in the
west, let alone marriages between little girls and adult
males. At 15, teens in Americas and Europe may look and
act older, but Moon Geun-Yong has the looks and the mental
age of someone much younger. I realize that the families
in the movie wanted to cement their close family ties via
the marriage of their children, but it makes me uncomfortable
to see such a little girl with a grown man. (Even though
they don't consummate the wedding in the movie.)
The plot of this movie made me reflect on certain aspects
of Korean culture. (Disclaimer: These are just my musings
and purely opinion.) First of all, Koreans must be quite
innocent and naive, otherwise how could a film built on
this premise be accepted as a romantic comedy? If a movie
like this came out in the west, people might think: Jailbait,
shotgun wedding, statutory rape. They also might view the
parents as manipulative conniving bad guys. Perhaps Koreans
never gave this strange premise a second thought because
they just have more innocent thoughts?
Another thing this movie shows the generally childish humor
of the Koreans. Sarcasm or subtle dark humor seems rarely
understood in Korea. Koreans prefer to laugh at overtly
silly situations. For example, in one scene, Sangmin taunts
Boeun by walking around in his boxers shorts. (Like OhmiGod!
that's so totally Gross!) The way she squeals at the sight
of him in his boxers might be the same way a kid would squeal
at another kid eating his boogers. Is this supposed to be
funny? I just thought it was kind of perverted.
Then there's this subtle underlying theme which is practically
incestuous. I know Korean families are close, but why are
there so many Korean movies where brothers and sisters almost
get together? I've seen Korean Movies where a half-brother
falls for his half-sister, a brother actually sleeps with
his sister, a brother is in love with his brother's wife,
and cousins want to sleep together. In this movie, although
the main characters are not blood related, they might as
well be brother and sister. YUCK. Don't any Koreans find
this recurring theme strange? Or again, am I just missing
the innocence gene?
I personally thought the premise of this movie was odd,
but it did very well at the Korean box office. My Little
Bride also helped launch Moon Geun-Yeong into superstardom.
Of all the aspiring actresses out there, I wondered how
this girl in particular broke into the movie biz. One friend
explained to me that she won the hearts of the audience
because she was just like everyone's little sister. Yes,
but would you want to see your little sister shacked up
with some older ajosshi?
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