my Little BridE

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?

A story that well sure be inlove with....