Die Koreanische Hochzeitstruhe

　　According to tradition, a Korean groom offers an elaborate wedding chest to his bride's parents. Dressed in traditional garb, he carries its meticulously layered treasures, each one prescribed by centuries-old custom, strapped to his back all the way to their door. Venerable filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger delicately unpacks the ornate rituals and complex mores of the Korean wedding rite. While clearly reverent of the past, Korea also has a pervasive modern wedding industry, which amplifies the drive for everything to be picture perfect, down to the last highly codified detail. The traditional Pe Baek ceremony, which sees the newly married couple receive their parents, is now awkwardly, and rather hilariously, run by wedding assistants who physically lift relatives into position. Like a polite guest, however, Ottinger never interrupts, allowing her poetic images to speak for themselves as old and new Korea marry in this fascinating cultural portrait.