lee chang dong exceptional secret sunshine be the single most emotionally ravage experience of the year . it be an instantly sobering and brutally honest character piece on the reverberation of loss and a graceful memento mori that resonate with a striking density of thought and yet remain as inscrutable a the emotion it observe . through it layered naturalism and stunningly trenchant view of small town dynamic and lee implicitly deconstruct the traditional korean melodrama by pull apart the cinematics of excess and rip to shred the arc that shape it character and ground the proceeding into a crush grind of stoic realism . secret sunshine remain an immensely compelling and fluid work throughout it 142 minute runtime . it bravura first hour be fill to the brim with subtextual insinuation and remarkable foreshadowing and adroit reversal of tone bring about by humanistic capriciousness . adapt from a short story and lee infuse the film with his sensitivity for the sublime paradox of life and last see in his transgressively comic and irreverent oasis . understand how personal revolution be forge when view of our universe be change and lee not only see the emotional cataclysm of a widow sorrow through an inquiring scope but also feel the tumultuous existential current that underpin the film when religion become a narrative scapegoat in comprehend the heinousness of the human experience . do yeon jeon ( you be my sunshine ) best actress accolade at cannes in 2007 be well deserved . her performance a the widow shin ae remain an unrelenting enigma . a a character pull apart by force beyond her control and the sheer magnificence of this performance be central to the film turbulent nature . with jeon essay one cyclonic upheaval after another and there a tremulous sense of collapse that the film and to it credit and never approach . instead it find a delicate balance that sap the charge theatricality and subsequent banality from ordinary tragedy and it fallout . she become the centre of the film universe as well a ours . film in glorious hand hold cinemascope and the film demolish the cinematicism of frame and composition by become visually acute just a it be quietly harrow when the camera never relinquish it gaze from shin ae through time of happiness and guilt and remorse . lee capture the detail of life in the small and suspicious town of miryang the awkwardness of communal situation and it uncomfortable silence and it devastation spin out of personal drama . shin ae interaction with the townsfolk rarely inspire dividend and especially when they be merely do out of obligation to fit in for the sake of her son and jun ( seon jung yeop ) . the one recur acquaintance be jong chan ( song kang ho ) and a bachelor mechanic of uncertain intention who help her en route to miryang in the film enchant open sequence set to a captivate stream of sunlight . song have situate himself a a comedic anti hero in south korea big film but his nuanced and low key delivery here purport the director think process of never have to reveal more than plainly necessary . if pain be ephemeral and then grief can never truly dissipate . and lee find complexity in subsistence . when shin ae attempt to head down the path of reconciliation only to be face again with unimaginable heartbreak and she unsuccessfully employ the fellowship of evangelical christianity a a foil to her sorrow . but lee know well than that when he understand that religion and in the context of the human canvas of strife and misery and be never a simple solution . but lee never rebuke the essence of religion a he realise the value of salvation for some through a high power even if it serve a form of denial in others . the scene in it latter half which deal with religion doesn not allow itself to become aggressively scornful and which be a feat in itself consider how many filmmaker let the momentum of the material take over from what they need to say to be true to it story and character . lee first film since his call to office a his country minister of culture and tourism be an uncompromising dissertation on human suffering . in a film so artless and genuine and it arduously reveal that there nothing as simple a emotional catharsis and just the suppression and abatement of agony . secret sunshine leave u with tender mercy pull out of evanescence and and point towards a profound understanding of despair and faith .