The Korean Wedding Chest

Filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger's The Korean Wedding Chest looks at how South Korean couples and their families can blend ancient traditions and modern customs when planning a wedding. Couples perform today's courtship rituals—fastening padlocks to the Seoul Tower observation deck or having “Unique! Modern!” photos taken—while the titular traditional wooden chest is also filled with symbolic items (like a small blue pouch of sticky rice for 100 years of happiness) that are wrapped in red (feminine) and blue (masculine) cloth, and looped with a swath of white fabric that customarily becomes diapers for the couple's firstborn. A messenger carries the chest like a backpack through narrow streets, past shops where age-old trades continue to thrive. Preparation and delivery of the wedding chest is only one among many rituals portrayed here. One couple is followed from the assembly of the chest through preparation for the wedding day, which starts as a largely Western-style ceremony, with a reception, and photo session afterwards. The couple next don elaborate Korean costumes and engage in a series of rituals with which they are so unfamiliar that they require constant direction from an older woman, who was apparently hired for the occasion: “Take the pot! Pour! No, not like that, with the left hand. Put it down! Take the bowls! Smile!” Interspersed throughout are scenes of Korean life that are peripheral to the wedding, including extended sequences featuring life on Korean streets, in shops, and at a temple (with monks building Buddha snowmen!) Mostly cinema vérité—with no narration or commentary from anyone except Madame Kim, who assembles the wedding chest—this is a visually lovely, amusing, and ultimately informative glimpse into South Korean culture. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)