<The Marriage Life (Gyeolhon-i-yagi)> (1992)

Director : Kim Yui-Seok
Production Company : Ik Young Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1992-06-29
Date of Theatrical Release : 1992-07-04
Running Time : 95 min.
Opening Theater : Piccadilly, Piccaso Theater, Cine House Hall 1, 2, 3, 6
Genre : Romantic Comedy

Staff :
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Park Heon-Su
Producer : Park Sang-In
Gaffer : Sohn Dal-Ho
Music : Song Byeong-Jun
Art Director : Kim Cheol-Wung
Editor : Park Sun-Deok

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Choi Min-Su, Shim Hye-Jin

Synopsis

Radio producer Kim Tae-gyu (Choi Min-soo) and voice actress Choi Ji-hye (Shim Hye-jin) get married for love, despite the vehement objection of their family and friends. The laundry piles up and cleaning takes a back seat, but their mutual passion makes their conjugal life joyful and exciting. Tae-gyu and Ji-hye's marriage appears at first to be a tremendous success. But eventually, their hectic life from the moment Tae-gyu is awakened by the sound of Ji-hye's hair dryer to their endlessly busy nights makes conversation virtually nonexistent and their marriage begins to suffer. Tae-gyu, who seemed to be a liberal, new-generation feminist when they were dating, adopts a chauvinistic attitude and tries to hold back Ji-hye's career. The various fantasies they had about sex before marriage are shattered mercilessly. Tae-gyu and Ji-hye begin to argue constantly. Such quotidian tasks as squeezing the toothpaste right, making dinner, and doing the dishes all become catalysts for conflict. Their clashes become so intense that they finally resort to divorce. After a long interval, when their wounds and painful memories have faded, Tae-gyu tells Ji-hye that he never stopped loving her and proposes that they start over. However, Ji-hye refuses, saying she does not want to relive the nightmare of their marriage. Tae-gyu sends a letter expressing his feelings to the radio show Ji-hye hosts, and then volunteers for a transfer to a faraway town. Ji-hye sets out to find him, and they run into each other at a cemetery that has romantic associations for them.

Notes

"The movie that signaled the beginning of high-concept filmmaking and altered the landscape of 1990s Korean cinema" (Cho Young-jeong)
The Marriage Life is a tailor-made product created through the meticulous calculation of audiences' expectations regarding the period's emerging debates on feminism and new-generation values. As such, it marks the beginning of high-concept filmmaking in Korea. The Marriage Life kicked off a long series of high-concept films about love as viewed by the younger generation. Dealing frankly with sex and married life, the movie distinguished itself as a new brand of romantic comedy that overcame the sentimentality and triteness for which the genre was constantly criticized. It drew an audience of over 500,000 in Seoul alone, which was a groundbreaking figure for its time, and established the image of Shim Hye-jin, who soared to stardom in a Coca Cola commercial, as a dauntless new-generation career woman. In particular, the scene in which Tae-gyu and Ji-hye, who work at the same radio station, playfully slap each other's behinds in the hallway or the one in which they argue bitterly over a tube of toothpaste perfectly demonstrated the importance of detail in romantic comedies. The slue of high-concept films that appeared after the success of The Marriage Life were pivotal in bringing young audiences back to Korean movies. Together with Korean New Wave films, they constituted the foundation for the industrialization of domestic filmmaking and signaled the renaissance of Korean cinema. The Marriage Life also served as the fountainhead for the Korean romantic comedy, which was a dominant genre at a time when corporate capital was first introduced into the domestic film industry.

Afterword

The newfound interest in high-concept films brought on by the success of The Marriage Life made the role of the producer particularly important. Production company ShinCine Communications and producer Oh Jung-wan moved into the spotlight as gifted pioneers in such new-generation filmmaking.

Director Bio: Kim Yui-seok (1957- )

Born in 1957, in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do. He graduated from the Department of Film Studies at Chung-ang University and entered the Korean Academy of Film in the year it was founded. He received attention for Daughter of Mobius (Mwebiuse-wi-ddal) as well as Chang-su's Age of Employment (Changsuwi-chiubshidae), a comic short about Chang-su, a naive pickpocket on his oft-perilous journey through life. After graduation, he acquired on the set experience working as an assistant director to Jang Seon-woo, Kim Hyun-myung, and Im Kwon-taek, making his directorial debut with The Marriage Life (Gyeolhon-i-yagi) in 1992. The Marriage Life (Gyeolhon-i-yagi) is known as one of the first high concept movies. It sold 500,000 tickets at the box office. Afterward, with the following successes of The Woman and The Man (Geu yeoja geu namja) and Gun and Gun (Chongjab-i), Kim Ui-seok was recognized along with Kang Woo-sukas a one of the successful directors at the box office to appear in the 90s. But after his 1997 movie, Holiday Inn Seoul, was criticized for plagiarizing director Kar Wai Wong's movies, the movie was shunned by critics and audiences alike. Afterward, he released The Great Chef (Buggyoungbanjeom) in 1999, but it didn't receive much attention. His most recent movie is At The Risk Of Life (Sasaenggyeoldan), made in 2006.