Hopeless romantic or macabre publicity hound? A Thai television director�s decision to marry his dead girlfriend and post photos and video of the event to Facebook and YouTube is drawing mixed reaction from the public.
Chadil Deffy, also known as Deff Yingyuen, married his girlfriend of 10 years, Sarinya �Anne� Kamsook, early this month as she lay in a coffin in a wedding-cum-funeral at a temple in Surin Province, the Pattaya Daily News reported.
During the ceremony, the 28-year-old groom, wearing a black tuxedo, placed a ring on the finger of his late girlfriend, whose body was lying on a raised platform, dressed in a white bridal dress.He put photos of himself and his dead bride on his personal Facebook page under an album titled "Corpse Bride." He also uploaded a video to YouTube.
The couple met while studying at Eastern Asia University 10 years ago and had planned to get married for a while but Kamsook died in a car accident on Jan. 3, according to media reports. She was 29.
A friend of Deffy, Onsiri Pravattiyagul, wrote in an opinion column this week in The Bangkok Post:
The "wedding" was his attempt to right a wrong, however belated the gesture might have been.
As expected, the initial public reaction was an outpouring of sympathy for the "groom" and a wave of sentimental remarks. The romantically inclined were moved by this expression of "true love," however unconventional. It seemed to hit a nerve with many people. The offline media picked up on the buzz, too, and went to town with the story. Chadil found himself under a spotlight, experiencing an unexpected 15 minutes of fame.
Also as expected, within days, the backlash began � and it wasn't at all kind. In a heartbeat, Chadil went from being viewed as a hopeless romantic to being vilified as a publicity-hungry opportunist.
Pravattiyagul said Deffy was heartbroken and �wasn't thinking about the possibility of fame when he decided to put a ring on her cold finger. He merely wanted to make things right, however small or inadequate the gesture might seem.�
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