Tang Wei weds in Sweden

Seoul - Chinese actress Tang Wei and South Korean director Kim Tae Yong have held an impromptu wedding in Sweden, ahead of an official ceremony next month.

The film couple, who announced their engagement earlier this month, wed on July 12 in the front yard of the home of late Swedish film legend Ingmar Bergman on the remote Swedish island of Faro, Kim's agency confirmed in a report by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

"Tang Wei's trip to Faro island is a pilgrimage she made for film master Ingmar Bergman," the actress' spokesman in China was quoted as saying by Chinese website NetEase. "Bergman's house is a place she has always dreamt of visiting. Director Kim Tae Yong also reveres Bergman."

"Upon their arrival, like other movie people, they were excited and emotional," the spokesman said. "To commemorate this sacred journey, they decided at the last minute to hold a small wedding to call their own, following local customs, at Bergman's house. This is a memento with special meaning that they have given themselves as movie people."

Local friends acted as witnesses, said reports.

A July 13 photo posted on Twitter by Swedish film critic and director Jonas Homberg showed guests sitting at a long table with candles on it. Tang, 34, and Kim, 44, were nowhere in sight. Homberg said he sang while Swedish musician Andreas Kleerup played the guitar.

The couple are to hold an official closed-door wedding next month, with only relatives attending, said Yonhap.

Bergman lived on the island from the early 1960s till his death at age 89 in 2007. In a career spanning the second half of the 20th century, he explored the human condition in films including Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) and The Seventh Seal (1957).

This article was first published on July 26, 2014.
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