Review:
Variety Review of Secret Sunshine
Luna Park review
Secret Sunshine IMDB Link
Opened in Korea. 17 May 2007
Plot. Plot Synopsis : A woman by the name of Shin-Ae and her only child move to the small town of Milyang, South Korea. Her husband has recently passed away and she has decided to start life anew back in the hometown of her deceased husband. While entering Milyang, Shin-Ae’s car breaks down along a rural highway. She is able to get the local mechanic in Milyang, named Jong-chan, to come out to her car and start it once again. Although they come from different social backgrounds, the pair hits it off and seems to find comfort in each other’s presence.
Tragedy soon strikes Shin-Ae again with the abduction of her only son. As Shin-Ae deals with another inexplicable tragedy she receives help from her friend Jong-chan to try to find the light that is buried somewhere within the darkness of her life.
Lee Chang-dong's SECRET SUNSHINE won a much more interesting prize than just bags of money at the box office -- it picked up the Best Actress Award at Cannes, for the lead Jeon Do-yeon. This is the first time for a Korean actor to win the top prize at one of the three major European film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice) since Kang Soo-yeon won at Venice for THE SURROGATE WOMB, way back in 1987 (Korea Pop Wars)
How I saw the film. CGV
I wanted to see a film that had just won a major award at Cannes and Jeon Do-yeon wining the Best Actress award really peaked my interest. I must say that her award was well earned, when you finally see her make the final cut, it just hurts to see what one was a beautiful lady, has now crossed over to the darkness of insanity.
I really had high hopes for this film it was a shame that when I left the theater the good intentions had left.
It was really hard to say what kind of a film this was. Was it a rejection of the Korean Christianity movement, was it a kidnapping, was it a murder story or was it a love story?
Now as most of the readers know, I was a police officer for 7 years. So when I saw the crime scene in the film, my mind went over very fast and stated the kidnapper must be....... Guess what, I was right. I was hoping that they would cover this part of the film more but it just seemed too rushed.
Now for the Male actor lead of this film. Song Kang-ho
he first caught my attention in 2 of my favorite Korean Films, JSA and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance I believe that we are watching a good actor turn into a great one before our eyes. I want to see his next film, A Korea Western called, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird
The film had all of the makings of a great film, that was until the last 30 minutes of the film. What ever flow it had, just became lost due to some very bad editing. The end was so muddled that these 2 good actors could not save this film.
The film is worth a look but that is it.
Grade C-