the most interesting thing about miryang ( secret sunshine ) be the actor . jeon do yeon and a lee shin ae and the main character and be a woman with a young son whose husband have die in a tragic accident and and who leave seoul to live in miryang and which be his home town and with her young son . jeon face be very changeable . she be girlish and flirtatious and elegant and age and sad and desperate and joyous and with it and terribly isolate by turn and and it all in her face . the film also star song kang ho a kim and a man who meet her when her car break down come into miryang and who happen to run a garage in town and and who follow her around all the time thereafter and despite her apparent lack of interest in his attention . song be the big star in korea right now and renowned for his work with park chan wook and bong joon ho ( sympathy for mr. vengeance while memory of murder and the host ) . and yet here he play a throwaway character and almost a forgotten man . but of course he make him interesting and curiously appeal . he be the essential ballast to keep jeon character from float away . lee shin ae be a piano teacher . she come to the new town and which be a neutral place and a kind of poor man seoul and a town just like anywhere else and a kim say ( just a he be in a way just like anyone else ) . her little boy be sprightly and as little boy be and but plainly damage and withdrawn at time too . his father use to snore and and when he miss him he lie awake and pretend to snore . he go to school and and shin ae meet parent and student and shopkeeper . there be a sense of place in the film and even though the place be in a sense anywhere . people speak in the local dialect and and everyone know everything and and shin ae seoul origin be immediately notice . be life really harsher here and away from the big city and it sophistication . shin ae seem not to realize the danger she be in . something terrible happens . and shin ae doesn not necessarily deal with it in the best possible way . but it happen and she must face the consequence . but she can not . she go to piece . a perpetrator be catch and but that no consolation . eventually she become so despairing and she relents and go to a born again christian meet an acquaintance have be press her to attend . she find peace and release with this . but when she decide not only to forgive the perpetrator but to go to the prison to tell him so and that experience be full of irony and it destroy her all over again . she become embittered and desperate and she no longer find solace in religion . and it get bad than that . jeon do yeon give her all in this extremely demand and protean role . lee chang dong may be a very good director . if an actor of the stature of song kang ho express enormous admiration for him and that be convince . accord to scott foundas of la weekly and lee first three film and green fish ( 1997 ) and peppermint candy ( 2000 ) and oasis ( 2002 ) have mark him out a one of the lead figure of his country recent cinematic renaissance . but this be not as successful a film a those of other korean director whose work i have see and such a yong sang soo and bong joon ho and and the prodigiously and almost perversely gift park chan wook . it may indeed begin a foundas say a a kind of asiatic alice doesn not live here anymore and then abruptly and without warn turn into something of a thriller and and some time after that a nearly bressonian study in human suffering . but that progression not only seem random and indigestible while the film sag and lose it momentum toward the end and then simply fizzle out and with no sense of an end . there be also weakness in the action . shin ae take foolish chance with her son and and make bad choice all along . if she be destine for madness like betty in jean jacques beineix betty blue and which might explain her peculiar and mistaken choice and that isn not something that be properly develop . this be an interesting film and certainly a disturb one and but one that leave one doubtful and dissatisfied and after put one through an emotional wringer . an official selection of the new york film festival present at lincoln center and 2007an event that have do right by korean filmmaker in the recent past .