My Love, My Bride (2014)

I went into My Love, My Bride with very little expectations. I thought it would be a cute romantic comedy, but silly me skipped right over the 'melodrama' tag.

The film does start off as a cute romance movie. There are loads of adorable moments and it helps that the main actors have great chemistry. We see the beginnings of the crack in the relationship, but our couple powers through and moves onto the honeymoon stage. This is where things begin to get dicey and the nicely laid foundation starts to fall apart and show that it is not all about romance, but human mistakes that can cost a relationship.

To its core, My Love, My Bride is a movie about how to make a relationship work and the mistakes one can make while in anger or misunderstanding. It doesn't do the best job at showing this as one the biggest mistakes is glossed over and never spoke of or brought to the attention of the other person. It essentially becomes no big deal and solidifies that it is okay to not tell your partner/spouse about what happened as long as your love becomes/is sincere.
That is the thing I dislike most about this film. I don't like lies, especially lies that aren't technically lies if you don't guess the truth.

The other thing that had my gears in a twist is what caused this chain of events (thus 'justifying' things to come): Mi Young meeting a coworker while she and her husband were on a date (as the in the summary). Even though Mi Young assures her husband, Young Min, that he is just a coworker and yet Young Min still dreams up false scenarios. In which we get the idea that men and women can't be friends without thoughts of sex or flirtation. See why my gears are grinding?

The characters are not flawless. They each have their own flaws. Mi Young, the wife, nags about housekeeping (if you can call that a flaw), and Young Min, the husband, is self centered, quick to ignore and say hurtful things. There's lots of bickering and makeups as the characters struggle to do the right thing and most often than not the wrong thing is said before the right thing is found.

Despite the miscommunication between characters (which would have solved everything), the movie is actually good. It lagged some in the middle and picked back up in strength toward the end. Don't go in expecting some feel good romantic comedy. You won't find that here. What you will find is a romance movie that becomes less about romance and more about the mistakes humans make while in love and the heartache that can come with it.

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Misleading trailer - this is NOT a rom-com >.<

My Love, My Bride has been on my plan to watch list for a very long time - I was excited to finally watch it. But I'm left disappointed because the movie did not play out the way I thought it would. The biggest flaw was how misleading the trailer is. The trailer makes it seem like it's a light, fluffy, rom-com, but instead it's most definitely a melodrama. The misleading trailer led to a very disappointing and unpleasant experience.

If the trailer has been a more accurate reflection (or if I hadn't watched the trailer) I think my experience would have been very different. Though, I'm not entirely sure since I don't really like stories of this type anyways.
The story revolves around a couple who have a bunch of issues which are "resolved" by the end of the movie, but I wouldn't consider them well matched or happily together, even in the end.

What caused this strong distaste, something that I've found to be more popular these days, was romanticizing and justifying infidelity. Upon integrating this plot point was when I really couldn't root for their relationship anymore. I know this story was supposed to be "real" and portraying what life as a couple is like with all it's ups and downs, but for me, it went too far. Cheating on your significant other should not be the point in which you realize you love them; you've gone to a point of no return - betrayal.

Don't normalize and romanticize infidelity. It's wrong - plain and simple - and you should be met with the consequences of your betrayal. Further, just because you had good times/memories does not mean that you are well suited for each other. Just because you have good sex does not mean that you have an overall healthy relationship. We all have our complicated relationships that have inevitable problems, but this was not entertaining to watch, as it crosses a lot of moral lines. While some people might find that they can empathize with this couple, it is NOT a story I can associate with, as I hold myself to higher morals. Overall, My Love, My Bride was sad and depressing, and worse, the trailer did NOT prepare me for this type of story at all.

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