Kwang-soo Kim Cho, one of the few openly gay filmmakers in South Korea, calls his feature film, Two Weddings and a Funeral, “happy queer romantic comedy.” In contrast of the bleak tradition of Korean queer cinema, TWAF relays the message that queers are not, in the director’s words, “social problems” and can lead happy romantic lives. This film’s combination of pretty gay characters and the conventional narrative of romantic comedy, however, raises a question: “Is there anything queer in this film?”
Borrowing from queer theorists, my presentation argues that TWAF’s assimilation to mainstream heteronormative society is diametrically opposed to queerness. If the core of queerness lies in its radical challenge to social norms in light of sexuality, the socially successful gay protagonists (a doctor and a musician) and their yearning for wedding do not destabilize the Law of monogamy. TWAF’s failure to embody queerness is also indebted to the genre of romantic comedy. Defined as a “genre about citizenship,” romantic comedy contains antisocial desires in the perimeter of middle-class heterosexual marriage. By describing gay characters as one-dimensional “good citizens” and marrying them off in legally void weddings, TWAF erases the diversity within gay community and turns gay people into harmless minorities who strive to be accepted by society.
While Korean society is largely homophobic, the increasing popularity of the yaoi (boy’s love) culture in Korea—“fanfic” idolizing K-pop “flower boys,” for example—is gradually altering the public view and boosting academic interests in the field. As the first filmic portrayal of positive gay lives in Korea, TWAF merits consideration. But due to the infantilization of the main characters (all they ever want is to ride bicycles together holding hands and kiss in public), TWAF remains a failure: too “wholesome” for a steamy yaoi work and too docile to be queer.
About the presenterSoo Kim
Soo Kim is Professor of English Literature and Culture at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea. Kim’s research and teaching interests include contemporary fiction, film, and gender/sexuality. Kim has been published in ARIEL, The Explicator, Adaptation, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and elsewhere.