Every now and then I like to dip into the old films that the Korean Film Archives have up on YouTube and pick one almost randomly. The films so far have tended to be a little dull and old fashioned but still interesting to me because of the period they are set in and the world they present. Most seem to be family dramas that are concerned with a changing dynamic in Korea regarding their patriarchal society, the relationship of parents to their children and the place of women in society that is becoming more and more influenced by the West. In most of them tradition wins in the end and the women are shunted back into their roles as good wife and mother. This one focuses on the tradition of marriage - an arranged marriage vs a love marriage. The upper middle class parents clearly had an arranged marriage but their three daughters rebel against that notion. Times are changing.




It begins with the marriage of the oldest daughter Suk-hee (Choi Eun-hee, the actress who was kidnapped by North Korea along with a famous director). It is a love marriage that the parents didn't really approve of but eventually they gave their assent. On their honeymoon night the groom says it is the happiest day of his life as he got to kiss her for the first time. Ok. Then he admits that he once was in love with another woman. Suk-hee is understanding and then makes the big mistake of admitting that she too once had a crush on the brother of a friend. Without a word the husband gets up and leaves for America. Ok. Not chaste enough. So much for love. She moves back home and stays in her room for four years! To her parents this is a clear sign that arranged marriages are best.


Meanwhile the middle daughter Moon-hee (Lee Min-ja) has fallen in love with the tutor to her brother. He is poor, has no relations and the parents - in particular the mother who is a screed - refer to him as a nobody. That romance does not go well. The final daughter Myeong-hee (Jo Mi-ryeong) is a free spirit still going through university and in no rush to fall in love. Until a man comes along who treats her arrogantly. So you have one daughter who won't leave her room, another who is suicidal, a third who is trying to trap a man into love and a young son who is a fink who ratted out the middle sister. And a beastly mother. Wonderful household.


Of course this sort of film always works things out - even to the point that the groom returns after four years and is welcomed by the family and into the embrace of  Suk-hee. Can you imagine that happening in a Korean film today? She would kick him in the balls and throw him out with the trash. Which is what he deserved. Different times. It is directed by Lee Byung-iI.