Film Review of “My Fair Wedding”:
Recently, on June 26th, 2015, the United States legalized homosexual marriage. This decision is likely to influence many countries, since America is a powerful country around the world. Still only 21 countries including the US allow homosexual marriage. Same sex marriage is still a controversial issue in our society. Korea is especially conservative about this issue hence does not legally allow marriage between homosexuals. Besides, many people have different views about the homosexual issue.
For this reason, Kim Jo Gwang-su and Kim Seung-hwan’s coming-out as a gay couple in front of the public was a somewhat shocking event in Korean culture. The documentary movie named “My Fair Wedding” directed by Kim Jo Gwang-su deals with their personal story and how they have thought about their partner and themselves. Also, the film is intended to attract public attention about homosexual marriage in hopes of changing our stereotypical view of homosexual marriage.
During the wedding preparation, they held campaigns and press interviews to overcome biases and be accepted by society. However, there were some Christians who protest against homosexuality. A man against homosexual marriage even pours filth during the wedding ceremony. In this part, I questioned why do they try to get married? They can just live together, if they love each other. What does the wedding mean to the couple? In the film, Kim Seung-hwan explained the reason why they want to be recognized as a legitimate couple. He says that marriage is beyond the meaning of ceremony, it means to trust each other and have somebody to rely on. Marriage is not just giving birth to babies and having a family, it means supporting the relationship between the couple. His partner, Kim Jo Gwang-su also says, p0-”Wedding brings two people into a system. So, we regard interchange of feeling is important before the wedding. But after it, marriage became reality to us. Wedding guarantees many things such as virginity, property, inheritance and parental right.” The advantage of marriage is more practical in that it can assure institutional services. Just a living relationship cannot look after the sick partner since they are not legal family. When the spouse passes away, the partner cannot inherit the fortune for the same reason. The children they adopted cannot have health insurance since their parents are not acknowledged in law.
Through the story of this couple’s marriage, I could think about why people get married. Generally, people want to have a lifetime companion to depend on and to make a family through marriage. To me, a wedding ceremony seemed to be a custom in universal flow, and a different thing after the wedding was that you receive a marriage certificate. However, the film makes me see the deeper meaning of a wedding. Responsibilities come with marriage. Marriage pushes you into totally a new relationships—parental relationship and friendship and more than that. In other words, the rights married couples get are also their responsibilities. More specifically, the married person has to care for their family. Whatever the meanings of marriage are, how to sketch their life is more important to married couples.
By Jeon Hyun-jeong, Tribune Reporter
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