Secret Sunshine 密陽***
Film opens with a very sweet young woman SangHae with a boy. She is a perfect mother, caring, romantic - young and pristine in some conventional way. She is a piano teacher. Widowed, she returns to MirYang to give her son the same stable child hood that her husband had. But bad things happens one after another, son got kidnapped, etc etc. Tragedy one after another, small town gossips, devote Christians worshipping in a very routine way, wooden tongues, but she finally accepted god, and found happiness. Then she decided to visit the prisoner who was the killer-kidnapper of the son to forgive him, but surprise surprise. The evil one said to her, that he also has been forgiven by god and prays for her everyday! She is no better than him in the eye of god, she cannot "forgive him" - because he has already been "forgiven" by god through his own efforts! Meanwhile, this man-man garagist- a common male who throws sexist comments in a crude way to his fellow female worker - is kind of in love with her. He began his long-distance close-ranged chasing. He does everything to make things better for SangHae, all in small details. The director doesnt show love by showing stereotypical roses and wine, fancy dinning. He does it in a very subtle correct to the situation way, fine brush work, showing who he is. He would put up a false prize certificate for her piano school - it is not her way, but sincerely he thought it good for her. He explains to the crying grandmother that SangHae is the one who suffered most. Everything is realistic, I could understand the Asian stuffiness as portrayed in this film. The young girl who quit school, got pushed, beaten by her boyfriend in a back alley, all this details makes the film very rich. It is the real world as we live it. Her romantic "secret sunshine" Miryang, is not at all special, it is just as imperfect, as evil, as stuffy as any old small town. Her "secret sunshine" in the end is the man who, through long patient devotion, sees her through all her difficulties and stays by her side.
He holds up a mirror so she could comb and cut it herself. There is a rich character development throughout the film and everything said /shown in a subtle way. Sanghae the sweet girl-mom, the devote christian, the sexy seductress, the crazy heart-broken-betrayed one (betrayed by god), and the one who finally gets very angry, and shows it!! She becomes human, no longer naive, someone who shows her anger, a more realistic person. Someone who doesnt live in a dream anymore.
The male actor is very good. He is very likeable.
The director is very subtle, he uses many small touches to describe his characters. For example, when Sanghae agrees to have dinner with him over the phone, he strikes this little "victory" pose - we only see it from the back. He swings his hips left and right, aha got it!! One step further in the right direction !
The film is also critical of certain "do good" religious groups because he shows that it could only help general cohesions -mediocre words and feelings- but doesnt really touch the real issue of people's deep pains.
Therefore, people like the garagist finds peace by going to the church - as he is not a complicated man, but the church would not do for someone like Sanghae, a much more sensitive romantic type.
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