This film is based on the true story of a woman who lived in the 1920s. Director Catherine Martin hopes to give a different account of a woman whose life has, up to now, been considered a tragedy. Marriages is set in the late 19th century when all that had been solid was melting away, and focuses on how a woman emancipates herself from a strict patriarchy, where desire and passion are not approved of.
 20-year-old Yvonne is only happy when she threads her way through the forest on her own, feeling the wind all around her, leaves touching her flesh, and able to smell the soil. Yet her strict sister does not approve of such a life. One summer day, Yvonne comes across a young man named Charles and feels immediately attached to him. Unfortunately, he is already engaged to Yvonne’s younger cousin. Her passion for Charles serves as the catalyst for the awakening of her own, long suppressed desire and sensitivity. Inner desire comes into conflict with customary expectation, forcing Yvonne to set off on a journey of self-determination.
 The image of a woman in a green dress climbing a hill is a significant one in this film. “It was as though she was somehow making herself envisioned, remembered and told in her own secretive way,” speaks Martin of her, haunted by the image. In the film, the green dress appears as the only thing left to Yvonne by the mother who killed herself. Yvonne’s sister adorns her mother’s dead body, scandalous for not having rotted in the ground after twenty years, with the dress. But it belongs to Yvonne, who, just as her mother did, goes to pursue her own world. (Nam In-young)