Secret Sunshine

The name of the town of Miryang means “a place with good sunshine“; for young Shin-ae however it becomes a place of pain and mourning. Following the death of her husband she moves to his hometown of Miryang with her small son and tries to start a new life there. She opens a school of music, she tries to make friends with the locals, and does not spare her well-intended advice, for example if she thinks that her neighbour could draw more customers to her shop if it was painted up more colourfully. Nonetheless she remains a stranger, and the town of Miryang ends up being one of the most difficult trials of her life... The most ambitious film yet from director and writer Lee Chang-dong is constructed in a similar way to the outstanding novel: with each minute of the story we uncover new levels of narration, unexpected depths and parallels, new surprises, and plot twists, all of which is permeated with deep humanity and a never-ending search for the desire to continue to live in spite of the very deepest pain. Song Kang-ho (who we can also see in The Host in the Midnight Screenings section) and Jeon Do-yeon (who came away from this year’s Cannes festival with the award for Best Actress) excel in the lead roles.