Miryang

There are a few stills on IMDB from the film, one in particular where the lead character (played by Jeon Do-yeon) is sitting in a Church. I looked at that picture a year after I watched the film and tears came to my eyes. This woman doesn't just play the role, she becomes it. There is no other way to explain the grief she expresses. You know when you are watching an incredible performance when for moments, if not the duration, you are hypnotized into believing you are watching someone truly experiencing what they are sharing in a performance. I can only imagine the potential traumas of "channeling" such a performance. In an interview by another actor (Michael K Williams), he talked about tools that are available to actors to allow them to comfortably return to reality without the stress (ptsd) from going in "too deep". Jeon Do-yeon's performance reminded me of that interview because I wonder how she did not "crack-up" after this film. You do not simply switch on and off without being affected unless you are extremely talented. I repeat, EXTREMELY talented. It is not enough to say Jeon Do-yeon is the best (that I am aware of) from South Korea; she is among the absolute best on this planet!

I love how Lee Chang-dong tells a story. I went in to this completely cold, and he had me hooked for all 142 minutes. I can't say I loved it, especially as it compares to some of his other work - it's just so unrelenting in its examination of grief - but its powerful moments which are deftly delivered will undoubtedly have real staying power. Among those is that scene in the prison, when through a beatific smile a man who has committed genuine evil claims to have been forgiven by god, which made the film an interesting examination of faith as well.

Those with faith sometimes claim that without it, any immoral act would be possible, but here we get the inverse. To have faith and believe your acts can be absolved can lead to the same depravity. The young woman navigating stages of grief as well as trying to process her evolving thoughts about god, starting with "if there is a god, why would he allow evil in the world to innocent children?" touch on things about the human condition that are impossible to reconcile, and may make you feel as tortured as she is if you think about them. To his credit, Lee never turned this into a crime story with a twist, or a revenge story, instead simply dwelling on the aftermath of something terrible happening to a good person.

There are clearly moments when religion is being critiqued, such as when the protagonist blares "It's a Lie" by Kim Choo Ja over the loudspeakers during a congregation, but it's notable that it's not completely portrayed as negative. The gentle arc of Song Kang-ho's character, starting from being a creep who jokes along with his buddies in aggressively harassing ways to a woman in their workplace, and ending with turning down an offer for sex and saying that attending church helps make him feel peaceful, was deeply humanistic. Throughout the film, the performances from Song and Jeon Do-yeon were fantastic, more than keeping up with a deep, emotionally complex script.

This is one I admire more than love, but I could see that changing over time. It certainly had me thinking about it for a long time afterwards, and Lee Chang-dong continues to be a director I'd see anything from.

For me, it was difficult to endure through the entire movie as it is very long and not uplifting. The main character Shin-ae is in almost every scene but she is not a like-able character. She is a selfish mom who put her son in danger by pretending to be rich when she isn't and leaving her young son by himself in the large house she is renting in a town she just moved to. We find out that she moved to this town as it was the birthplace of her unfaithful ex-husband who died in a car crash. We later find out that Shin-ae resented her mother who hit her with a spoon and denied her schooling in a music program. But the moments that explain Shin-ae's mental state are too brief. Instead we are shown endless scenes that don't add to the story, just a bunch of scenes with Shin-ae acting recklessly and everyone around her tolerating her. A large amount of time is spent on her experience with Christians and Christianity. It ends with her questioning how God could forgive the murderer before she could and her breaking the the window of the pharmacy couple who try to help her. The mechanic character played by the famous Song Kang-Ho from Parasite does not seem real. Who in reality would put up with her? The son character is the most uplifting one and the young child actor does a great job with his portrayal. Song Kang-Ho also brings lightness and humor. The main character is shown without any makeup with unstyled hair throughout the entire movie. Actually, no one in the movie wears any makeup. Everyone is shown with ordinary clothes and hair styles. I think the Director was trying to make this movie look like a documentary. Even though this is an acclaimed movie, I think a movie should be entertaining. This was not. This should have been edited down with more emphasis placed on her past that explains her current actions and cut out all of the vomiting scenes. She vomits so much, I thought the character was pregnant.

"Secret Sunshine" reminded me of "The Rapture" (1991), with Mimi Rogers and David Duchovny, but this Korean production is a better film. It portrays super-religious Korean Christians in a provincial Korean city, and the main character's experiences interacting with them in the wake of a horrible personal tragedy. Shin-ae is a widowed single mother who moves to the city of Milyang ('Secret Sunshine' in Chinese) from Seoul with her young son. She has chosen Milyang because her late husband (killed in an auto accident) was born there, and she feels she needs to make a new start in life in a new place. She does not react well to the overtures of the local Christian zealots, one of whose members tries to convince her to come to their church and prayer meetings. Shin-ae is essentially irreligious and brushes these people off as politely as she can. In fact, she brushes just about everyone in Milyang off to begin with, but some of them are persistent in trying to invade her world, and the consequences are often hilarious. To say more would be to give the film away, but it should be noted that the performance of the woman in the lead role (Jeon Do-yeon) is stupendous. Having read that she won the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2007, I expected her to a decent job. But Ms. Jeon is captivating and it is impossible to take your eyes off her when she is on screen. The movie is a sort of harrowing Evelyn Waugh-esquire piece of work, showing how Fate can feel insane as much as strangely inevitable.

I've waited to see this movie for a long time and at last I could manage to see it in Istanbul Film Festival. Maybe because I expected too much from this film and that's why i was slightly disappointed. I was not the best movie from Korea but still it is really worth watching.

The subject was nice and the film makes you keep watching without getting bored though it is long. But there are gaps in the movie and you jump from one point to another. However, the acting of Jeon Do-Yeon is incredibly beautiful. It was was one of the best performances in the early cinema history and I think this movie wouldn't be that nice if she was not in the leading role.