Secret Sunshine [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Lee Chang-dong Lee Chang-dong

Overview

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 husband's death. Having given up on her career as a concert pianist when she married her husband, she starts up a piano school, but soon it begins to feel like the polite people who inhabit her new home aren't as friendly as they seem on the surface. Judgmental whispers and disapproving gossip begin to reach Shin-ae's ears, and pressure to join the Christian cult that thrives in the town begins to mount. She's hesitant until an unimaginable tragedy alters her life forever, setting Shin-ae on a dark path of withdrawal from society as a whole.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/23/2011
UPC:	0715515085212
Original Release:	2007
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	2:22:00
Sales rank:	9,935

Special Features

New video interview with Lee; On the set of "Secret Sunshine" a behind the scenes video piece featuring interviews with actors Jeon Do-Yeon and Song Kang-ho; U.S. theatrical trailer; New and improved English subtitle translation; A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jeon Do-Yeon	Lee Shin-ae
Song Kang-ho	Kim Jong-chan
Kim Yeong-jae	Min-gi
Seon Jeong-Yeob	Jun
Jo Yeong-jin	Park Do-seop
Song Mi-rim	Jeong-ah
Lee Yun-heui	Actor
Kim Mi-hyang	Actor
Kim Mi-kyeong	Actor
Oh Man-seok-I	Actor
Lee Sung-Min	Actor
Park Myeong-sin	Actor
Ko In-beom	Actor
Park Sang-gyoo	Actor
Lee Dong-yong	Actor
Ko Seo-hee	Actor
Kim Hye-ji	Actor
Choi In-seon	Actor
Kim Min-Jae	Actor
Kwon Geum-san	Actor
Christian Basso	Composer

Technical Credits

Lee Chang-dong

Lee Chang-dong	Director,Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Hanna Lee	Producer
Kim In-soo	Executive Producer
Steve R. Seokofic	Sound/Sound Designer
Jeong Seung-koo	Assistant Director

Editorial Reviews

Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine is reminiscent of the melodramas of Lars von Trier: an intense long-form character study with a novelistic sense of shifting form in a dark, almost cynical tale of awakening. 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." She is rescued by bumbling mechanic Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho), who takes an immediate interest in her and helps to set up a piano-teaching school in the city. This comfortable settling-in is disrupted after her son is abducted and found dead. For the rest of the movie, Lee undergoes a spiritual journey as long-term mental breakdown, joining a born-again Christian church and then rejecting God through self-abasement. The narrative and the characters are constantly twisting in unpredictable ways. "There are things you can't see," advises a Christian pharmacist, hinting at the underlying beauty and cruelty within the town. In conservative Miryang, the men are callous toward women, insensitive to their emotions. Song, adding layers to the bumbling yet cocky comic persona that has made him a Korean movie star, comes across variously as a puppy dog, stalker, and harmless fool. The open-hearted Christians can be delusional and naïve, yet all are also capable of acts of generosity. The blue sky which often fills the frame can be oppressive or freeing. Lee weaves these disparate elements into a harmonic whole, ultimately revealing a deeper current that sustains the community. Yet for all his mastery, Lee has a maddening tendency to overplay his dramatic hand. Similar to his Oasis, he revels in climatic fits of screaming and risks romanticizing a medical issue (a physical handicap in Oasis, a mental breakdown in Secret Sunshine) in the service of a broader message. But insanity is not a road to enlightenment. Jeon's searing and brilliant performance charts her character's breakdown so convincingly it only drives the point home. To Lee's credit, though, the ending retains an air of mystery as to where life will lead her. Secret Sunshine was featured in the 45th New York Film Festival and Jeon won the Best Leading Actress award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

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