They too, like Ottinger in her most recent The Korean Wedding Chest (2009), have turned to Asian rituals for inspiration, in particular, how these customs help one reconcile the past with the present, familial heritage with postmodern life.
Although they belong to different genres, Treut's and Dorrie's feature-length fictional works bear comparison to Ottinger's most recent documentary, The Korean Wedding Chest, for all films ethnographically record Asian rituals in terms of reception of or by the West.
There is an extensive body of scholarship on Ottinger's earlier films shot in China (Armatage, Bergstrom, Grisham, Harjes and Nusser, Knight, Longfellow, Radkiewicz, Rao, Rickels, Shahan, Sieg, Sieglohr, Trumpener), inviting one to assess The Korean Wedding Chest in light of it.
The Korean Wedding Chest follows a loose narrative, taking the viewer through various stations, announced by subtitles, of longing, courtship, prenuptial agreements, and wedding ceremony.
The context she gives for her montage of images is a formal one: the very rhythm of her montage is comparable to the pure listing of the items placed in the Korean wedding chest or, in another sequence, the Chinese cooling herbs for summer that the herbalist places into the packages he assembles.
Indeed, what distinguishes The Korean Wedding Chest from Ottinger's previous documentaries Taiga, Countdown, Exile Shanghai, and Southeast Passage is that she is not capturing societies poised to disappear in the onslaught of global capitalism and postmodernization but how traditional rites are preserved alongside newer observances.
(14) To put it differently, the Koreans exoticize their own heritage and are as much engaged in the theatrical presentation of the wedding chest and performance of the Pe Baek ceremony as they are in marching to the altar to the tunes of Mendelssohn and light classical music.
The difference in The Korean Wedding Chest is that the bridal party never acknowledges in this same way Ottinger's presence, since the whole event is staged as it is for the camera.
