"Secret Sunshine" is of the most unexpected and may be the most honest film I have watched. I was interested in it because I wanted to see Do-yeon Jeon in her
Cannes Festival winning role as a Korean widow living and struggling through her loss, grief, more loss and more grief. She absolutely deserved her Best Actress prize in Cannes Festival 2007. But the film was so much more than that. It had several big themes and each theme was thought-provoking: the nature of grief, small-town life, Christian Protestantism, romance, "crime and punishment". I think it is a film that will give something different to different viewers and will be understood differently by different people.
I was personally the most affected by the themes I listed below. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible:
Honest representation of the present day Christian Protestant church. I have never expected to find this in a film from Asia. It shows it all: pluses, minuses, downs and ups. Without any bias, any prejudiced mocking or saccharine coating. This is a hot topic of conversation between my friend and I, how faith and religious organisations are two totally different things and how any religious organisation (not only Christian Protestant) is the same as any human organisation with the same people as everywhere else, and how faith is something that is uniquely yours.
Forgiveness I have read in quite few reviews that the main herouine, Shin-ae, couldn't forgive the man that did her a terrible wrong, that she could not accept God's forgiveness for this man, etc, etc.
My understanding of the situation is completely different. I often ponder about this: can people who commit terrible crimes be forgiven by God? I must accept "Yes" in general, but I want to look at individual cases.
For example, in "Secret Sunshine", Shin-ae (with her newly found faith) goes to a prison to meet the person who committed the terrible crime against her. She wants to forgive him. And what does he say to her? He says that he himself found God, that he is forgiven by God and happy. In this situation I see a terribly selfish man, still thinking about himself and himself only. The God's forgiveness doesn't mean that this man is forgiven by people and it does not absolve him from trying to do every possible thing for the person he committed the crime against. I am completely on the side of Shin-ae in this situation, I don't want to forgive this guy, and I think it is he himself who has forgiven him, not God.
Job's friends The story about Job is one of my favourites. The story goes like this: Satan sees Job who is all-around good and prosperous guy. He comes to God and challenges him to test Job. God says "I have given you the Earth as your domain, do what you want to do. I am sure Job is a good guy". Job loses everything: his possessions and children. Finally, he becomes infected with some terrible skin disease. He sits and he grieves. His friends come to visit him and under the mask of kindness tell Job that "he is punished by God because he must have sinned in the past". When Job starts asking questions "Why is God doing this to me?", his friends cut him short by saying that asking these questions is evil. Then a young man comes along and proves Job's friends wrong.
I see the story of Job's friends repeating itself in the film. When Shin-ae starts asking "Why is this happening to me?", her church friends act terrified as if she is saying some horrible hypocrisy. They are lovely people and they keep her best interests at heart, but they don't hear her at all.
Summary "Secret Sunshine" has it's flaws. It is too long and could benefit from removal of some scenes. But I thought it was an excellent movie, filmed beautifully and innovatively. Some of the scene compositions were absolutely unique. Also the space seen by the corner of your eye was utilised in amazing ways. I am going to try find another film by the director,
Chang-dong Lee, "Oasis". He has really impressed me.
Warning: May be if you are not interested in small town life, cultural and class differences or Protestantism the film could be less interesting to you than to me. Also I must warn that this film is very hard to watch, it left me exhausted.
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