Heartbound: A Different Kind of Love Story

Over 900 Thai women are married to Danish men in Jutland, Denmark, a tradition that began 25 years ago when a former sex worker from Northeastern Thailand, Sommai, married a Jutland native. Since she has assisted lonely Danish men and destitute women from her hometown to find someone to marry and share life with. Over the course of 10 years, acclaimed filmmaker Janus Metz and his anthropological wife, Sine Plambech, follow four Thai-Danish couples in an intimate chronicle that examines universal topics of love and passion, dreams and daily suffering, life and death, and the very meaning of family.

All those couples, Kae and Kjeld, like Niels and Sommai, John and Kae’s sister Mong, and Frank and Mong’s cousin, must overcome their shyness and linguistic barriers in order to determine if they want to be married. Another young lady, Saeng, searches for a Danish guy in Sommai’s hamlet in the meanwhile. Sommai is unable to assist Saeng since she is too young to be married and apply for a residency visa in Denmark. Instead, Saeng must accompany her female friend Lom to Pattaya, where hundreds of Thai women have sex to Western visitors, in order to support her kid.

Ten years later, we instead encounter the wives from Northern Jutland. While Kae’s adolescent Thai son struggles to integrate into Denmark, she and Kjeld have a little kid. While Frank and Basit are getting divorced, John and Mong live happily amid garden angulars and Buddha statues in their own little multicultural paradise. The younger generation is still primarily concerned with the youngsters and the future, while Sommai still longs for all she left behind decades ago. Niels does not want to live in Thailand, and she does not want to pass away in Denmark.

The plot of “Heartbound” centers on a group of married Thai/Danish couples who live in two remote areas on two separate continents. Over the course of 10 years and three generations, this epic family saga and migration tale depicts the hopes, longings, and wants of people everywhere.

Personal opinion

The Danish film Heartbound, which was shot over a decade, enables viewers to engage with the human stories underlying economic migration, sex labor, and arranged weddings. On one hand, this documentary is an effective tool for motivating individuals to act on modern human rights issues. Moreover, it questions our perspectives on sexual labor and economic mobility.
In addition, it illustrates the challenges Thai women endure due to poverty. Many women chose to sell their bodies in Pattaya in order to make money and provide for their families. As Saeng says: “it’s easy money”. Furthermore, the film shows the economic distress in which some women find themselves. However, I believe that the documentary conveys a sense of superiority among foreigners by implying that marrying a Dane will save their life. Women appear to have only two options in Pattaya: become prostitutes or marry a foreigner, a stranger.

On the other hand, throughout the documentary, we have the feeling that Thai men are disrespectful and it is better for women to marry a stranger that does not understand their language. A man with whom you have difficulties communicating rather than marrying a Thai man. In this documentary, marriage does not feel like a love story or marrying by choice but more by obligation or spite.

According to me, it would have been interesting to demonstrate the migration policies for visa acquisition, marriage, and so on. This aspect of planned marriages is not directly addressed in the documentary. Furthermore, it does not necessarily strengthen the women’s and children’s worries about integration and inclusion.

The documentary shows Kae’s son struggling to fit in, but the problem is not explored in depth enough.

Finally, the work of Janus Metz & Sine Plambeck, allows us to see the shortcomings of tourism, especially sex tourism in Thailand. They remove a veil on a taboo subject in our society. They show over 10 years how situations can evolve and how intercultural couples marrying without feelings evolve over time. Unfortunately, they show a sad reality where women marry to support themselves and their lives. Marriage to a stranger allows them a stable life and they give back by being a housewife.