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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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Cast & crew
6What people say
I don't know what I was expecting from this but I wasn't expecting one of the most unflinchingly critical examinations of the value and limitations of Evangelical Christian Church as a social and spiritual institution that I've ever seen in a movie.If you liked First Reformed, Silence, or Winter Light, this is possibly essential viewing.
Ottway once uttered with great anger, looking at the skies, screaming out loud,“Fuck Faith, Earn it”.Secret Sunshine is undeniable proof how excruciatingly true those words are.The grief of a Mother losing her child is insatiable. It cannot be understood by anyone else, not even by God. It is the worst way for God to punish a human being. It is the worst plight a human being can be subjected to. Her unbearable loss makes her surrender at God’s feet and accept everything as His will. This faith is rooted from the fact that she is helpless. Everyone she turns to is supportive, but she knows none actually fathom what she is going through and everything is just make believe. She becomes disheartened, her mind is disillusioned, her acts are disoriented, and she puts on fake laughs to meld into the sweet proceedings of the world and develops faith in God, the only way to mitigate her searing, immeasurable pain.It is befitting, that a pain which can never be whole heartedly empathized with, an anger which can never be reasoned with, a person who cannot be mended, a mental state which can never be understood finds redemption and relief in an equally unexplainable figment called God. She accepts her pain and goes a step further by forgiving the person who was responsible for her debilitating loss.But does God allow her torturous soul to finally rest? No. He tests. He wants to evaluate whether her faith is true and unflinching. He provides absolution and peace to the very person who deserves to be incarcerated and burnt in hell. How can God be so ruthless and deny a person the transcendence from pain to peace through an act of kindness? How can he deprive a person who deserves the authority to forgive? Are we supposed to pass such a test to gain His confidence? He did not earn her faith, she gave it to Him and now she realizes that He did not deserve it in the first place. Her anger is imploding, destroying her every passing minute like a slow poison. She wants to dishonor god and spit in the face of every person who believe in something which can never help them, something which just watches their lives pass by. Our reality is just a soap opera to the guy above. It is all very easy to say, do, pray and believe until the shit hits them.But even with all that anger, she remains directionless, with frustration etching her soul. Her mind is hollow. A hollow created by her personal loss and the loss of her faith in God. She walks and talks like an inanimate object with absolutely no emotion. Her mind is brimming with distasteful thoughts of the world. Even a cold blooded revenge would have brought her more peace. She waits in the open for her Secret Sunshine. She does not know what it is, who provides it, where it comes from, what it does or how it will help her. She waits hopelessly, insensibly and without belief, like an ant waiting to be squished by a giant toe. The Toe of God, Nature or a human being, she would gleefully accept anyone to put an end to her misery.This film, powered by the central stellar performance from Do-yeon Jeon, has a whole lot of heart. A heart which is subjected to a whole lot of merciless crushing, because it receives gifts that do not last.PS, I myself can be tempted to argue that God treats both the moral and the amoral the same. But why didn’t he bestow in us the same quality? Why did he design us this way? What an evil joke. This is exactly why it is better to not be a believer in anything, not be an atheist, not be a theist but treading the line right in the middle. Believing in Human Beings. Accept any human being who shows Love as God. That is the best and the most impenetrable way to Eternal Peace.
Common questions
What is Secret Sunshine about?+
It follows a grieving mother who moves to her late husband's hometown to start over, only to experience an unimaginable tragedy that tests her relationship with faith and humanity.
Who directed Secret Sunshine?+
It was directed by Lee Chang-dong in 2007, a celebrated South Korean filmmaker known for his deeply psychological character dramas.
Has Secret Sunshine won any major awards?+
Yes, lead actress Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actress award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for her performance.
