Not long before, her mother-in-law had been demanding to see evidence of inconsolable anguish. A compelling and poignant Korean film about a besieged widow's journey into the far country of forgiveness. The Christians portrayed in Secret Sunshine are just suggesting a cookie cutter process they'd suggest to almost anybody who isn't Christian. When Shin-Ae tries to purchase some land, Kim recommends a very wealthy and powerful land owner. Genre:Drama Teaser Trailer. would be a dire misinterpretation. Featuring vo. This is going to be something that comes up again in a later scene and something that repeatedly comes up with characters in the film itself. Her face is happy, but her eyes are not. Name: Jeon Do-Yeon Hangul: Birthdate: February 11, 1973 Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea Education: Seoul Institute of the Arts, Graduate School of Korea University Height: 165 cm. The scene where the police show her his body is one of the most interesting shots in the film. After her car breaks down, Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho) comes to her rescue. Profile. Because of that, she spirals back down into grief and hits an even lower point than she did earlier in the film. Jun is kidnapped (as it turns out, by his teacher) because Shin-ae had given the false impression that she is wealthy, and when she cannot meet the demands, Jun is killed. Yet, to suggest that Jeons expression is ever blank in Secret Sunshine would be a dire misinterpretation. But when Shin-Ae visits the prison to forgive the killer, he tells her he has found God and has peace now that he knows God has forgiven him. This is even true of the films more overt critique of Christianity, its growing prevalence in contemporary South Korean society, and the comfort it supposedly offers to those who embrace it. Movie rating: 7.5 / 10 ( 8473 ) Directed by: Chang-dong Lee - Chung-Joon Lee The Secret Sunshine Project Benjamin Dean 4.29 213 ratings70 reviews A heart-warming story of kindness, courage and love in all its forms. The film also shines a spotlight on an important phenomenon that is transforming Korean society the phenomenal rise of evangelical Christianity. It is this sense of proximity and distance, the subjective and the objective, belonging and separation, exterior and interior that will profoundly characterise the rest of the film. As she tries to fit in, another tragic event overturns her life. Synopsis. Dec 22, 2010. But Lees film insists upon the necessity and centrality of personal morality and experience, the painfully humanistic values of the self that transcend the transplanted, generalised beliefs of religion. God beats Shin-ae to the punch and she feels cheated out of the superiority and power she wanted over Do-seop. As she gazes up at the sky and speaks with God, she by extension speaks with the audience. Its just us and her now. Whether innate or self-willed, her optimism is apparent every time she puts on a happy face for her son, whos still young enough to respond to his mothers attempts to keep him entertained, distracted from their less than fortunate reality. When she comes home one day and cannot find Jun, she melts to the ground and begins to wail in a way that is almost comically childlike. Jeon Do-yeon won the best actress prize at Cannes for her emotional performance. But God and the killer have a big and upsetting surprise for her: one that sends her careening into a downward spiral of self-destructive actions. Title: Secret Sunshine - Milyang (2007) Directed by: Lee Chang-dong Date of birth: 4 July 1954, Daegu, South Korea Writing credits: Lee Chang-dong, Chong-jun Yi Music: Christian Basso Year: 2007 Country: South Korea Language: Korean Color: Color Runtime: 142 min. Csar Albarrn-Torres Amanda Barbour Tara Judah Abel Muoz-Hnonin Fiona Villella. 2:16. May 24, 2007 9:00pm. The 38-year-old single loser Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho), a friendly garage owner, immediately becomes attracted to Shin-Ae and wont stop following her around to get a date, even though she shows no interest and is a different type of personality. Aurora Amidon spends her days running the Great Expectations column and trying to convince people that Hostel II is one of the best movies of all time. Get info about new releases, sales, and our online publication, Current. A Pakistani protest in June 2012, after two recent US drone strikes killed 12 people. But, in her performance, Jeon goes beyond these emotions, and in a tearful prayer, a gaze at the sky, or a blank stare, she gives us powerful insight into the core of Shin-ae. [7] The film sold 1,710,364 tickets nationwide in South Korea alone.[8]. As a result, this woman is the first to gossip about the stranger at the beautician's. Soon, thanks to gossips, everyone in Miryang knows, has money to purchase some valuable land, and a man who moved here from Busan kidnaps her son and asks for ransom. He can unleash commandos, or cyberweapons, or threaten to utilize weapons of mass destruction unless. This draws the anger of Jun's grandmother, however. Secret Sunshine ( Korean : ; Hanja : ; RR : Miryang) is a 2007 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Chang-dong. After she's released from the hospital, Jong-chan takes her to a salon where Do-seop's daughter now works. This marks the first, faltering step towards confronting the past in a film centring on grief, mourning, faith and survival. Choosing where to start on Secret Sunshine is difficult because there are at least 3 or 4 distinct turning points in the film that mark a huge shift in Shin-ae's mental state/ability to process her grief. About four boys that lost their heart and . The kidnapper is swiftly captured, but Shin-ae doesn't seem to be vengeful and sheds no tears at Jun's funeral. After she visits the prison, Lee seems to suggest that Shin-ae's conversion was really just a way for her to feel like she had power over Do-seop. ", "Criterion Blu-ray in August: Pontecorvo, Polanski, Kubrick, Chang-dong, Cocteau, Anderson, Vigo (Updated)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Secret_Sunshine&oldid=1134736974. After falling into a depression, Shin-ae turns to a Christian community to ease her suffering. , tragedy strikes for single mother Shin-ae (. Juns slain body is found by the local reservoir, and mom goes into a deep funk. , is discovered dead in a river after having been kidnapped and held for ransom. I apologize ahead of time if this comes off as being overly critical of Christianity. Shin-ae decides to go and breaks down in the meeting place as the minister's hand cups the crown of her head. There are glimpses of the way forward. The more interesting implicit idea that Lee puts forth is that grief is, in its own way, a process of being born again. The local mechanic in Miryang Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho) fixes her car and assists Shin-ae as she opens her piano school and attempts to purchase land to build a house on. Secret Sunshine Directed by Lee Chang-dong A compelling and poignant Korean film about a besieged widow's journey into the far country of forgiveness. Though she and Shin-ae get along for a minute or two, Shin-ae eventually jumps up and storms out. Less than halfway through Chang-dong Lees Secret Sunshine, tragedy strikes for single mother Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon). She is alone; for a moment, she is even shielded from the audience. Not in her desperation for popularity in the beginning, nor in the frantic grief, nor in the blind faith, nor in the dull and depressed anger. But Shin-ae is crushed by gods indifference to her pain and agency. But when Juns killer tells her that he, too, has found God, and, whats more, that God has forgiven him, Shin-ae suddenly meets the depths of despair. Now she is forced to learn a new kind of grief altogether. Although Shin-ae lies to herself, Jeon refuses to lie to the camera. Korean director Chang-dong Lee, whose recent film Poetry made some film festival waves has a really interesting entry into the kidnapping genre. After ineffectively attempting to commit suicide in a final act of abasement, Shin-ae is discharged from hospital and taken home by the ever-faithful Jong. But for all her good intentions, she is also a walking harbinger of death. The FBI Wall of Honor remembers Special Agent Sang T. Jun, who died on October 22, 2008 after collapsing during SWAT tryouts earlier that month. Even though she's just a child (I'm not sure how old the actress is, but the character is probably supposed to be 15-16), Shin-ae still can't forgive her for her father's crime. This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 09:29. Secret Sunshine by Lee Chang-dong, Jeon Do-yeon, Song Kang-ho, Jo Yeong-jin | DVD | Barnes & Noble In this somber Korean drama, a young mother and widow, Shin-ae, moves with her young son, Jun, from Seoul to a small town called Miryang following her Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. An exemplary examination of coping that expands to entail questions of morality, absolution and faith, Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine is a masterwork of incisive melodrama. He is a frequent contributor to Film Comment and 4Columns. Shin-ae eventually decides that she wants to see the man who murdered Jun in order to forgive him. Jong-chan claims he is only trying to be a Good Samaritan. The former author Lee Chang-dong(Poetry/Peppermint Candy/Green Fish) writes and directs aneffective but not a superior drama that explores the effects of grief on a young widow in modern Korea. Shin-ae's anger is meant to be entirely understandable to the audience. Tears may be more welcomedmore valuedon the big screen than they are in real life, but to be satisfying they also have to seem in some sense hard-won. At least that's how her in-laws treat her after Jun is kidnapped, held for ransom, and killed. Tony Holden, who turned himself in to authorities, was arrested for allegedly murdering rapper, Lil Snupe, seen here in his June 25, 2013 mugshot. As the film winds through its first half-hour, we observe Shin-ae making a solid effort to assimilate into the community, engaging in small talk with a shop owner or women at a hair salon, socializing with the teachers and fellow parents shes met at her sons school. Secret Sunshine is a frequently beautiful film with a cold, dark heart. At his funeral, Shin-ae's mother criticizes her for not shedding a tear and says that everyone who comes into contact with her dies. Shin-ae zieht mit ihrem Sohn Jun in die Geburtsstadt ihres krzlich verstorbenen Mannes, um einen Neuanfang zu wagen. In one of the greatest contemporary melodramas, Lee Chang-dongsSecret Sunshine, the heroine, Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon), is not introduced as a sad sack, despite the fact that well before we even meet her shes had a right to be. Berating the unknowing Jong for his choice of venue, she leaves the salon, visually questioning, by her gaze skyward, the overriding cruelty of an ironic god. Blood Type: O Movies. Maybe to put it in different terms, the Christians portrayed in Secret Sunshine are incapable of having their faith challenged. From the Secret Service agent whose gun went off accidentally to alien abduction, here are 12 experts' favorite conspiracy theories about who killed JFK and why. She either realizes what she's done or she's just complete delirious as she goes outside and cries for help. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. One of the many strengths of Jeons performance, which earned her, Just as it is again later in the film when she convinces a married man to have sex with her to get back at God. But this is also crying that revels in being seen and heard, crying that requires a spectator (a role that Jong-chan, throughout the film, humbly fulfills, and that God seems to repeatedly decline). Her journey does involve moments of self-pity, masochism and abandonment, as well as a brief, almost incongruous retreat into meaningless carnality, but is dominated by the physical and uncanny experience of separation and her escape into religious ritual, community and faith. Her lie causes much sorrow. Like the earlier scene where she sees Jun's body, the camera in this scene takes a somewhat detached but respectful position for the most part. Relocating from the bustling metropolis of Seoul to her late husband's. hometown of Miryang makes her in some way still feel connected to the man she loved so deeply. However, Lee's point is that religion is especially incapable of helping a person cope with grief. Driven by unrelenting mental anguish, Shin-Ae joins an evangelical church and becomes a re-born Christian. Take, for instance, a moment after Shin-ae claims to have found God. She is seemingly in a state of bliss as a result and decides to visit Juns killer in prison and forgive him. He was leaving a motorcycle dealership in south Florida on Monday when a gunman shot him . It may be the most cringe-inducing moment in this very grim film, because it evokes a truth about human behavior movies rarely ask us to consider: that as much as we may think of crying as an involuntary reaction that bubbles up from our innermost depths, it is just as easily perceived by others as affectation, assessed as performance. When she makes the transformation into faith, shes smiling, happy. They may genuinely want to help Shin-ae, but their faith makes them unable to actually reach out and sympathizing with her in any sort of meaningful way. His message is essentially that, according to Christianity itself, salvation and god's love is available to everybody, even if you murder a child. They've never experienced suffering and loss like Shin-ae and they seem unable to simply sympathize with her. and wont stop following her around to get a date, even though she shows no interest and is a different type of personality. This has the effect of making her relationship with god seem even more shallow. she seems to tell us, Ill show you crying. In this devastating scene, Jeon takes us right up to the line where rapture and tantrum meet. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. First she converts to Christianity despite being a fairly ardent atheist and then later she appears to fall back to atheism, or at least becomes so angry with god that she's willing to commit crimes and even kill herself just to get back at him. Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy was shot three times after giving a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Jeons performance as Shin-ae is truly remarkable in its range, subtlety and sense of both closeness and distance. This whole string of scenes constitutes the first major breakdown she has in the film. As so often in Secret Sunshine, it is an image of both the now and then, the grounded necessity of the present and the trauma of the past, an irresolvable and bottomless image. They drive out to a secluded field together and attempt to have sex. 2:32. 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