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. Welcome toThe Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinemas best roles. . 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. Lee Seung Jun is a South Korean actor under Jump Entertainment. Secret Sunshine (Korean:; Hanja:; RR:Miryang) is a 2007 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Chang-dong. But between the screams and the physical collapse, the strength of Jeons performance lies in its quietest moments. Korean director Chang-dong Lee, whose recent film Poetry made some film festival waves has a really interesting entry into the kidnapping genre. In some ways the journey he plots out for Shin-ae is cruel. Dropping off the other daycare children, Shin-ae witnesses the girl being bullied but doesn't intervene. 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. A compelling and poignant Korean film about a besieged widow's journey into the far country of forgiveness. Lee has commented that he wanted to strip everything back in this film so that we would be forced to focus on the raw experience of the central character and her attempts to deal with her sons death. She hardly says a word, but instead, her face falls slightly, and she merely looks at the killer. But open displays of melancholy were nonexistent in my household, to the point that I would have been about as shocked to witness an adult family member weeping as I would have been to stumble on one of them having sex. Do-seop (her son's murderer) reveals that he too has found god and feels absolved for his crimes. Jeon expresses this through bold, fearless gestures. 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. 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. Jong-chan doesn't understand why Shin-ae needs to visit him to forgive him, but nevertheless accompanies her. That sort of intense emotional pain stays with you for your entire life no matter what you believe. (Source: Wikipedia) Edit Biography. Director Lee Chang-dong could well have cut 30 minutes out of the story, but Jeon's performance is powerful enough to keep Secret Sunshine from drowning in an ocean of tears. Attempting to restart her life, she has somewhat surprisingly decided to move to the town with her son. Allowing your entire life to be dominated by a single emotion that lacks any semblance of nuance isn't a good thing. Though to call Secret Sunshine a genre film would be a huge mistake. What makes this response so noticeable is the opposition between pre- and post-trauma Shin-ae. Their conception of god and Christianity is very basic and uncomplicated. Its based on the novel by Chong-jun Yi. Juns slain body is found by the local reservoir, and mom goes into a deep funk. As she tries to come to herself and | dG1fMC1EWkhveFczVVk . Now she is forced to learn a new kind of grief altogether. 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. Dec 22, 2010. One of the many strengths of Jeons performance, which earned her the best actress prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, is that the core of her character never changes. George Pattison, a chartered accountant, murdered his wife Emma and their daughter, Lettie, with a shotgun before turning the weapon on himself. SECRET SUNSHINE Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan. The two of them have a complex relationship that I myself haven't quite figured out yet. However, Lee's point is that religion is especially incapable of helping a person cope with grief. And in one of the films most emotionally complex scenes, excerpted in the video below, she opens up the floodgates. She whispers something at the sky that is, at first, impossible to make out. Released , 'Secret Sunshine' stars Jeon Do-yeon, Song Kang-ho, Jo Young-jin, Seon Jeong-yeop The movie has a runtime of about 2 hr 22 min, and received a user score of 71 (out of 100) on TMDb . At a group meeting later in her home she denies gods right to forgive this man before she has, questioning: How could God do that to me?. I hated them, and I felt guilty about hating them. 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. Like, kind of gross but also cute happy. Yet, to suggest that Jeons expression is ever blank in Secret Sunshine would be a dire misinterpretation. 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. 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. ) 75. Later, police officers arrive to take her to a reservoir, where Jun was drowned. US rapper XXXTentacion, who quickly rose to fame with two consecutive hit albums, has been killed aged 20. Opening to a shot of a clear blue sky that's ultimately juxtaposed by a haunting image of a garbage-strewn dirt patch, Lee's film concerns Shin-ae (Cannes best actress winner Jeon Do-yeon), who with her young son . We look back at one of Combs most underrated performances bringing the master of the macabre to life. [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 grace is not the ultimate, even if unwanted or seemingly unwarranted, state or goal of Lees characters. Shine-ae (Jeon Do-yeon)s car has broken-down outside of Miryang (which literally translates, supposedly, as secret sunshine), the place where her recently deceased husband was born and raised. Despite warnings from her friends, Shin-ae is optimistic that this visit will give her all the more reason to believe in God. Indeed, Lee seems to imply that they're mutually exclusive. There are glimpses of the way forward. It forms the middle part of a kind of triptych also including Oasis (2002) and Shi (Poetry, 2010) dealing with the extremes of female experience, and features one of the great contemporary performances in its lead role. Just outside her home, Shin-ae is called by a pharmacist who tells her that the solution to her problems is belief in God. Chong-jun Yi. Its cruel how often the capacity for crying eludes us, sometimes right at the instant when we want to be persuading othersand ourselvesthat we do feel something. Her young son, Jun, is discovered dead in a river after having been. Mr. Sunshine Episode 24 (Final) Recap Korea, 1907. The film was similarly acclaimed in its American release in 2010. Secret Sunshine: Interview de Song Kang-Ho. Genre: Drama / Arthouse / Religion / Award Winning Production Budget: US$ 3.5M 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. 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. 34 talking about this. Jong-chan arrives, offering to hold up a mirror for her. 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 ." Addeddate 2022-01-23 21:24:16 Identifier Because of that, she spirals back down into grief and hits an even lower point than she did earlier in the film. In Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, the idea of God is put to the test as the film questions His existence in a world where sinners and victims obtain forgiveness in equal doses.. She whispers something at the sky that is, at first, impossible to make out. 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. Under the disapproving scrutiny of the gossipy locals, she sets up a piano school and finds a puppyish admirer in a friendly mechanic (the popular actor Song Kang-ho, last seen here in "The Host . Adrian Danks is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Media in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University. As she tries to fit in, another tragic event overturns her life. 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. He is also co-curator of the Melbourne Cinmathque and was an editor of Senses of Cinema from 2000 to 2014. The wide-open space of the countryside is contrasted with the more circumspect and distanced view glimpsed out of the car window. [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. This whole string of scenes constitutes the first major breakdown she has in the film. Is it done with self-forgetting abandon or as a power play to forestall the moral judgments of onlookers? 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. 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. Profile. 94%. The turning point in Secret Sunshine comes when Jun, Shin-ae's son, is kidnapped and killed. This gives her temporary relief believing that God is by her side. Although Shin-aes journey into faith and out again ultimately rails against the undiscriminating forgiveness of god, the film does not fall back on easy stereotypes of the vacuously happy Christian or of a rigid fundamentalism. It is the earth and not the heavens that offer consolation here. After this, the film immediately jumps forward by an unspecified amount of time. Teaser Trailer. He unthinkingly attends church as a means to support and court Shin-ae, but continues to attend after she has rejected the respite of faith, calmly embracing the sense of order and peace it grants him. "[13] Noel Murray, writing for the A.V. I cant remember a time in my childhood when I saw a grown-up cry. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. However, Shin-ae walks into the pharmacy and seduces the pharmacist's husband, but he is unable to perform, and she misses the date. 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. Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) is a widow in her thirties whose husband died in an automobile accident. $9.99 Buy. The forgiveness that Shin-ae offers is doubled by the faith and inner peace her sons murderer has found in prison; god has supposedly absolved his guilt. The scene is not between Shin-ae and the man. 2:16. Ironically, Christianity helps her son's murderer far more than it helps her and that sets the rest of the film in motion. In this subtly hopeless stare lies the turning point of the film. 270 Edit this Page. The suspect reportedly barricaded himself in his home, where . This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 09:29. She receives a phone call (implied to be from Jun's kidnapper) and draws all of the money from her bank account to pay as ransom. This is another really remarkable scene and the first time I saw it I actually didn't understand what was happening at first. Dec 22, 2010. Lee presents Christianity as the easy way out. And at the same time how close to sacred, how much like a spiritual possession. As she walks away, her expression is blank: she does not need to look proud or angry because the action speaks for itself. Her actions, reactions, emotions and motivations are both understandable and mysterious. And for her part, Shin-ae, a problem solver by nature, latches onto Christianity as a practical path to healing. that Shin-ae is a character subject to dramatic changes from lost, to heartbroken, to blissful, to angry, and back again. Kill Boksoon (2023) - Kill Bok-Soon ; Emergency Declaration | Bisangsuneon (2022) - Sook-Hee ; Beasts Clawing At Straws | Jipuragirado Jabgo Sipeun Jimseungdeul (2020) - Yeon-Hee 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. 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. JustWatch. Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. Jesus told us to love our enemies, and this is what Shin-ea wants to do. 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. 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. "[12] A.O. Edit Translation. Surprisingly, the kidnapper (turning out to be Jun's daycare teacher) reveals that he found God as well and that God has absolved him of his sins. And every time she responds to a tragedy with a cold, withdrawn expression, the intense body movements offer more of a pay-off. When attempting to impress her new neighbors, she lies about her wealth and drinks and laughs in a way that is jarring and unlike the Shin-ae we have become familiar with. She will visit the man in prison who killed her son and forgive him. But for all her good intentions, she is also a walking harbinger of death. Shin-ae is a glass-half-full type, we assume, not one of those people predisposed to sadness, not someone who easily crumbles. 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. Minutes pass, and as the camera surveys the congregation singing, swaying, and surrendering to the spirit, we start to hear throaty, coughed-up wails. Browse more videos. Although the 142-minute running-time might seem forbidding for a film that is often staged on a such an intimate scale though with epic implications it is completely necessary in order to fully explore and present the various stages of Shin-aes grief and her process of mourning. 2010 142 minutes. Although it may seem to rely upon a rather conventional notion of the malevolence and subterranean stirrings beneath small-town life, the film actually provides a far more nuanced and open vision of character and community. When Shin-Ae pays him less than the amount required, the boy is killed.Jun's slain body is found by the local reservoir, and mom goes into a deep funk. They have almost the exact same simplistic, one note relationship with god that Shin-ae does.The pharmacist's line about god's will being in everything appears to be the entire mantra for the group of Christians around her. Shin-ae lays on her back, looks up at the sky and says something to the effect of "Can you see this, god?" "Secret Sunshine" is a powerful film, both complex and honest in its natural rhythms and brilliantly performed by the lead actors, yet Shin-ae's loss of emotional grounding becomes overly insistent and melodramatic towards the end in spite of a superb performance by Jeon, who won the award for Best Actress at Cannes. [16] In 2020, The Guardian ranked it number 7 among the classics of modern South Korean Cinema. 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. 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. He is a frequent contributor to Film Comment and 4Columns. 2:32. But her faith and belief unravels when she decides to forgive her sons murderer. The kidnapper is swiftly captured, but Shin-ae doesn't seem to be vengeful and sheds no tears at Jun's funeral. Winnfield Police Dept . Secret Sunshine. Her face is happy, but her eyes are not. Shin-ae has walked, as if in a trance, into a church service, Jong-chan following unobtrusively a few paces behind her. As she tries to come to herself and | dG1fMC1EWkhveFczVVk. Miryang/Secret Sunshine (2007 South Korea 142 mins), Prod Co: CJ Entertainment/Cinema Service/Pine House Film Prod: Lee Hanna Dir: Lee Chang-dong Scr: Lee Chang-dong, based on the novel by Yi Chong-jun Phot: Cho Yong-kyou Ed: Kim Hyun Prod Des: Shin Jum-hee Mus: Christian Basso, Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Song Kang-ho, Jo Yeong-jin, Kim Mi-kyung, Kim Yeong-jae, Ko Seo-hie. 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. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life. This gives her temporary relief believing that God is by her side. Secret Sunshine: The Criterion Collection. 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. The more Jong-chan tries to help Shin-ae, the angrier she becomes about his constant interference into her affairs. Although Shin-ae lies to herself, Jeon refuses to lie to the camera. Few performances have so bitterly captured what it looks like to be tangled up in emotion while also, to some degree, manipulating it for an audience, dialing it up for maximum impact, luxuriating in that moment when the tears finally do come. It was in the movies where the grown-up world was allowed to reveal itself in various states of despair. Sunshine and Bullets is all of that and I could not get on board with the Bullets. Jun was determined to save Kazuya from Devil's possession, and the inner conflict she inspired in him was the main reason he was defeated and seemingly killed by Heihachi at the end of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. 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