Eugene holds his dead friend hand and asks how this happened. 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. It's heavily implied early on that Do-seop's daughter knows her father is responsible for kidnapping Jun, but she never reveals this to Shin-ae. 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. Secret Sunshine (Korean:; Hanja:; RR:Miryang) is a 2007 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Chang-dong. Before leaving, Shin-ae's brother tells Jong-chan to stop pursuing Shin-ae. 2:32. 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. Maybe to put it in different terms, the Christians portrayed in Secret Sunshine are incapable of having their faith challenged. 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. 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. It's not until after the camera pans back down that you realize she's just slit her wrists. 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. After Jun is cremated, Shin-aes mother-in-law screams at her and tells her that she brings death wherever she goes. Secret Sunshine is a frequently beautiful film with a cold, dark heart. These beautifully modulated actions and compositions suggest the gradual possibility of acceptance and dealing with grief, the presence of Jong holding the mirror which contains a small inset photograph of her son intimating the fragile bonds of friendship and support that Shin-ae has resisted and railed against throughout. Jeon has given Shin-ae a rebel streak, and time and again she leans into it, that part of the character that says if I must fall apart, I will do so spectacularly. This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 09:29. Her church friends throw her a birthday party, during which she states that she will visit the kidnapper, now in prison, to forgive him. When Jong-chan takes her brother to the railroad depot, he tells him that he's not Sin-ae's type. 72K views 11 years ago Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. For example, Shin-ea tells a woman who runs a shop that she should paint the place to make it more appealing to customers. The best way I can explain it though is that Do-seop's daughter is another way Lee shows how grief can totally consume you. At 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, bullets fired into the open roof of the presidential limousine tore through John F. Kennedy's body. Special features on the DVD include an interview with director Lee Chang-dong; on the set of Secret Sunshine, a behind-the-scenes video piece featuring interviews with actors Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho; the U.S. theatrical trailer; and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim. He has published hundreds of articles on various aspects of cinema and is the editor of A Companion to Robert Altman (Wiley-Blackwell) and American-Australian Cinema: Transnational Connections (Palgrave). The experience of watching [Chang-dong's] films is not always pleasant yet his quiet and exacting humaneness infuses even the most dreadful moments with an intimation of grace. Jeon Do-yeon won the best actress prize at Cannes for her emotional performance. Episode 49 46m. And for her part, Shin-ae, a problem solver by nature, latches onto Christianity as a practical path to healing. Her Christian friends are almost entirely unwilling to help or sympathize and the pastor of her church actually blames her for being too weak to forgive Do-seop. The point Lee makes is that neither is particularly healthy in the long run. 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. Secret Sunshine is Lee Chang-dong's fourth film and this touching tale of a young woman facing tragedy saw Lee gain even more recognition as one of the key directors to have emerged from South Korea in the last two decades. While entering Miryang, Shin-ae's car breaks down. Regardless, they had a child, Jin Kazama. It's also been practiced in South Korea since the early 17th century so it's not exactly new. That's not totally my intent, but I do think Lee meant his film to critique some of the failings of religion. David Collin, 53, was killed while he slept in a sleeping bag outside a Maroochydore . 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. Secret Sunshine Lee Chang-dong Shin-ae is a glass-half-full type, we assume, not one of those people predisposed to sadness, not someone who easily crumbles. Shin-aes failure to ingratiate herself to others is contrasted with the figure of Jong (the wonderful Song Kang-ho), a mechanic who becomes infatuated with Shin-ae. Less than halfway through Chang-dong Lee's Secret Sunshine, tragedy strikes for single mother Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon). Ethan Nguyen died in hospital after being hit by the car on Thursday evening. She stumbles through the streets like a teen who has had a few too many. When she delivers less than the amount required, the boy is killed. Jong-chan arrives, offering to hold up a mirror for her. Expecting a degree of remorse and even begrudging compassion, Gondo is confronted by the unchastened, still-raging kidnapper who offers no moral comfort or certainty. Unfortunately, it doesnt touch the heart as much as it thinks it does, and loses its way by becoming too plodding in its possible romance story and showing how religious exuberance might give joy but could be as dangerous as a drug when you come off its highs. ) The Secret Sunshine Project Benjamin Dean 4.29 213 ratings70 reviews A heart-warming story of kindness, courage and love in all its forms. Senses of Cinema was founded on stolen lands. Now she has to reconcile with another massive loss in her life, that of God. V.A. She shuts herself off from the world entirely as a defense mechanism rather than letting any sort of emotion through whatsoever. In the short term, this helps Shin-ae overcome her grief. But grace is not the ultimate, even if unwanted or seemingly unwarranted, state or goal of Lees characters. This would also set up a fateful encounter. Genre:Drama Details. Secret Sunshine is the fourth film made by Lee Chang-dong, inarguably one of the most significant directors to emerge in world cinema over the last 20 years. Andrew Chan is web editor at the Criterion Collection. Established in Melbourne (Australia) in 1999, Senses of Cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film-related content on the Internet. When she decides to purchase some land, he recommends a very wealthy owner. It opens with Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) lost in her car on the outskirts of Miryang, a Korean town whose name means " Secret Sunshine ." Inspired by her new faith, she decides that it is time to prove to God and to the world that she is an Olympic class believer. Once she arrives with her young son, Jun, in Miryang (which translates roughly to the "secret sunshine" of the title, a mysterious phrase that wonderfully embodies the elusiveness and the ultimate privacy of true joy), Shin-ae sets up her own piano-teaching school. 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). As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. Later that night, she receives a phone call, which she claims to Jong-chan to have been from the kidnapper; he dismisses the idea but tells her to calm down and arranges a dinner date for the next day. On the way home, she passes by a vigil held for her by the pharmacist couple; it is interrupted when a rock is hurled at a window. . Shin-ae isnt locked off into an impenetrable state of madness; just as soon as the dust settles, she has to try and function as a member of society. Indeed, Lee seems to imply that they're mutually exclusive. "[14] Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice wrote that "the red-eyed Jeon, landing a Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 and unforgettable as well in The Housemaid, goes to hell and back. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. [17], On August 23, 2011, The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD and Blu-ray, both of which includes a new video interview with Lee Chang-dong, a behind-the-scenes featurette, the US theatrical trailer, and a booklet featuring a new film essay by film critic Dennis Lim. Related Articles. Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) is a widow in her thirties whose husband died in an automobile accident. 94%. Indeed, Shin-ae is only able to maintain this facade in public. [4][5][6] The film also won the award for Best Film at the Asian Film Awards and at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. But we feel her sentiment, and it doesnt even really matter what she is saying because her eyes tell us precisely the pain that she is feeling. "[12] A.O. Secret Sunshine Original title: Milyang 2007 Not Rated 2 h 22 m IMDb RATING 7.5 /10 8.7K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:35 1 Video 59 Photos Drama A woman moves to the town where her dead husband was born. PremiereFR. I've rambled on a lot here so I'll try and sum all this up in a relatively brief way. This great director from the golden age of Mexican cinema drew upon a wide range of styles to explore the conflict between tradition and modernity. The film . Hosted by NBC News' Craig Melvin, each episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered incorporates the classic elements of drama and great storytelling: good guys, bad guys, conflict with the highest stakes, suspense and resolution. Grief can also make you lose your moral compass and any real semblance of right and wrong. However, when she gets to the prison she finds out god has already beaten her to the punch. One night, Shin-ae returns home late after partying to discover that Jun is missing. By forgiving him of her own son's murder, Shin-ae could change their entire relationship and make Do-seop feel beholden to her and the extreme mercy and compassion she was displaying. This gives her temporary relief believing that God is by her side. The most interesting thing about Miryang (Secret Sunshine) is the actors. An exemplary examination of coping that expands to entail questions of . Blood Type: O Movies. She likens it to a love affair at one point and that's fairly accurate way to describe it. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.68/10. This gives her temporary relief believing that God is by her side. 3 days ago. Become an Oxygen Insider. relocates with her elementary school-aged youngster Jun (. ) She's looking up at the ceiling (that's a really common motif in this film, people are constantly looking up at the sky or the ceiling and imploring god) and making some labored, painful noises. 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. The kidnapper asks for money because he presumes that since she can buy land, she must be rich. $9.99 Buy. Adrian Danks is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Media in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University. The actor may hate Joe Goldberg, but we still cant get enough of the psychosexy sociopath Badgley brings to life in the stalker-centric rom-dram. From her palanquin Go Ae Shin (Kim Tae Ri) spies Eugene Choi (Lee Byung Hun) kneeling next to a body on a cart. Movie: Secret Sunshine Revised romanization: Milyang Hangul: Director: Lee Chang-Dong Assistant Director: Lee Jung-Hwa Writer: Lee Chang-Dong Producer: Lee Chang-Dong Cinematographer: Cho Yong-Kyu Release Date: May 23, 2007 Runtime: 142 min. Ae Shin can't stop looking at Eugene as the palanquin moves away. 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. ", "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. Secret Sunshine is a frequently beautiful film with a cold, dark heart. Read her mostly embarrassing tweets here: Jeon delivers a jaw-dropping performance as a grieving mother. Shin-ae's anger is meant to be entirely understandable to the audience. But when, 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 where Lee really starts to overtly criticize Christianity. This drives. Flamboyant, indulgent, and just a bit socially inappropriate, this outburst is Shin-aes perfectly useless revengeand its a mark of Jeons brilliance that we can tell shes having fun with it. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. She winds up outside of a house where her Christian friends are holding a prayer vigil for her and shatters a window with a rock. At home, Shin-ae and Jun engage in a prank where Shin-ae pretends to be unable to find Jun. She says the Lords Prayer but is unable to keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks. At least that's how her in-laws treat her after Jun is kidnapped, held for ransom, and killed. Third and finally just as an FYI for anybody who doesn't know, almost exactly 30% of South Koreans identify as Christian. Watch Trailer. 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. Allowing your entire life to be dominated by a single emotion that lacks any semblance of nuance isn't a good thing. The suspect reportedly barricaded himself in his home, where . Is the criers crying credible, or commensurate to its cause? A relatively brief way stop looking at eugene as the palanquin moves away on evening... Than letting any sort of emotion through whatsoever that appears unreliable or low-quality the tears rolling. Of having their faith challenged so it 's not totally my intent, I. Herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life single. Up in a sleeping bag outside a Maroochydore regardless, they had a child, Jin Kazama onto Christianity a... Of kindness, courage and love in all its forms kidnapped, held for,! Her dead husband was born tragic event overturns her life cold, dark heart the film has approval... 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