Secret Sunshine (2007)
Directed by Lee Chang-dong
Shin-ae moves to her recently late husband’s hometown. Despite her efforts to settle in this unfamiliar and too-normal place, she finds that she can’t fit in. After a sudden tragedy, Shin-ae turns to Christianity to relieve her pain, but when even this is not permitted, she wages a war against God.
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What critics compared Secret Sunshine to
Only a true artist could have made films such as Secret Sunshine (2007) and Oasis (2002), filled with scenes that have stayed lodged in my mind.
Much like his last two films, Secret Sunshine (2007) and Poetry (2011), both lyrical examinations of women attempting to cope with tragedy, Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong's Burning is a kind of anti-mystery, a film where murder is the catalyst for a much larger exploration of Korean society.
Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong ( Secret Sunshine ) directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Oh Jung-mi, adding another layer of cultural interpretation.
A simmering potboiler, Chang-dong, who revels in complex character driven narratives, as evidenced by previous efforts such as 2007’s phenomenal Secret Sunshine and 2010’s Poetry (both which depend exclusively on female driven perspectives), fashions his first significant masculine protagonist in this woebegone study on class issues, loneliness, and the moral bankruptcy of society’s wealthy elite.
Director Lee’s previous works include the dramas “Secret Sunshine” (2007) and “Poetry” (2010).
Boasting a fitting title considering the film’s slow burning metaphorical narrative, the latest and best from Chang-dong (Poetry, Secret Sunshine) might seem self-indulgent from the outset, but once a mystery begins to form and a game is afoot, it’s clear that every seemingly inconsequential detail that had been previously doted upon will form key pieces of a masterful mental puzzle where some answers will remain forever out of reach.
It ponders the dogmas, riddles and anxieties of Christian faith with a rigor and seriousness that, with a few exceptions — Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” and Lee Chang-dong’s “Secret Sunshine” come to mind — has few recent equivalents in world cinema.