AFI 2007

by Ari

 Secret Sunshine (Chang-dong Lee)

This very peculiar and unconventional drama ambitiously attempts to mix religious and spiritual ideas with a character study on loss and personal tragedy. The film certainly has a lot on its mind, and while I applaud director Chang-dong Lee for being so open and thematically focused, the story never adds up to anything seriously profound. A lot of Secret Sunshine’s ambiguity seems to be a distraction from how confused and unclear it is about the ideas it tries to explore. I love films that allow the viewer to contemplate and interpret its events, but in the case of this film, I can’t tell what greater purpose or concept it means to convey. Religion is bad? Religion is good? Maybe a little bit of both? There is a God? There isn’t? Maybe it’s all a big mystery and we’ll never figure it out? These are very common questions that Chang-dong Lee raises throughout the film (adapted from novel by Chong-jun Yi), but to say what? I don’t think it’s any secret that people are mystified by the purpose of life. People define themselves and their experiences however they want, whether through some mystic external force or through their own happiness or whatever. A lot of the things that happen in life are incomprehensible, but that itself is a part of what defines us. I believe this is what the film means to comment on.

Shin-ae (Do-yeon Jeon) and her son move to a small town called Miryang, located outside of Seoul. Miryang is where her dead husband was born and always wanted to return. Shin-ae sets herself up in the new town by giving piano lessons to children. A mechanic, Jong Chan (Kang-ho Song), helps her to get acquainted with her new home. He secretly loves her, hoping his sweet manners will eventually win over her heart. After a few weeks in Miryang, Shin-ae is hit by another shocking tragedy. Her son is kidnapped and killed by his teacher, something that surprises everyone in the small, relatively peaceful community. After this she turns to Christianity for answers. Once she’s “found God”, her spirits are lifted and she becomes increasingly passionate about her faith. This doesn’t last very long, though. She visits her son’s killer in prison to forgive him for his sins, only to find that he too has found God and feels spiritually and morally healed for what he’s done. Yeah, faith’s a bitch, isn’t it?

This is one of my main problems with the film. Shin-ae, a seemingly intelligent and grounded adult, is that blind and oblivious to how religion works in this world? Once she realizes God is a sham she tries to fight back and prove His non-existence. She seduces a friend’s husband and says to the sky, “are you watching?”. She also disrupts a community gathering where people pray to Jesus and throws a rock at someone's door later on. It’s all very amateurish. The relationship between her and Chan is the most interesting thing about the film - how these two characters connect emotionally without ever getting romantically involved. The performances are strong all around, but the film is too thematically uneven to invest in. Ambitious, but flawed.