Marriage (1999)

In China the marriage ritual is not a matter of a boy and a girl who are in love with each other and want to officially confirm their relationship. The protocol consists of six stages that must be completed according to the rules: the proposal, the negotiations, the engagement, the cognisance of the birth dates of the betrothed couple to ratify the marital relationship, a visit to the fortune-teller for the most favourable wedding date, and finally the wedding ceremony. MARRIAGE follows a marriage broker during the extensive, complicated and relentless negotiations for two marriages, somewhere in the southwest of China, between Jian and Qiong, and between Yu and Zhao. In addition, the film depicts the daily life in the villages, which is filled with manual labour on the land (the men) and around the house (the women). The film ends with the wedding celebrations, when the bride is carried across the mountains to her future husband’s house in an adorned, closed palanquin.