Matrimony

The Matrimony (2007)

The movie starts off with a beautiful young woman named Manli heading to meet her boyfriend who is proposing to her. When she tries to cross the street she is hit and killed right in front of him. The movie then moves to a year later when the boyfriend, Junchu, is now married to another woman named Sansan. He doesn’t really care for her, but did so at his mother’s request. Junchu is rather terrible to her as he is still pinning over Manli. Eventually we find out that her ghost is haunting him and tries to help Sansan make him fall in love with her. But of course there is more to it then that as the ghost as an agenda of her own (of course!).

I have mixed feelings about this movie. 1st up it is good to see that Tartan Asia Extreme label is back putting movies out. I have most of their older titles and enjoyed most of them. The Matrimony isn’t a bad movie, but I’m not sure that it is a good one either. It’s strength lies in the characters and the plot. This is a very interesting movie that slowly unravels itself on the screen. I wasn’t quite sure where it was going, but have to say it was fun. I liked the characters, especially Sansan who is very sympathetic. I was rooting for things to work out for her, and I guess they kind of do. Though I’m not sure about the ending and what it was meant to be. This might have been lost in translation or perhaps is a cultural thing.

Lets talk about the behind the scenes stuff. I though that the camera work and lighting were okay at times and pretty good at other times. There are a couple of scenes that use the lighting and camera to let the audience in on some creepy stuff that the characters don’t know. Things coming in and out of the shadows or in and out of focus are simple tricks, but can be very effective. We don’t get much in the way of effects work. There is a cringe worthy bit of CGI at the beginning that had me worried, but it gets better as the movie goes on. The best bit has to do with the ghost walking up and thru the dinner table to possess Sansan.

What doesn’t work for me is the pacing of the movie. It is only 80 or so minutes long, but feels like a much longer movie. It takes far too long for the ghost to finally show up. When she does finally show up they just keep having her float into the frame. This really isn’t scary and the movie never builds any tension. This is surprising because even the worst of these kinds of movies at least have a couple of jump scares (cheap as they might be). Now I wouldn’t say that I was totally bored, because as I’ve already said I did dig the story and characters. But the pacing did take a movie that I would have really liked and made it average.

I’d say that at best this is a rental. I can’t imagine taking the time to watch it again. This is an average effort at best. That said I’m still really excited to see this label active again and look forward to what they put out next.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer