Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 5, 2011

Winner of Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and South Korea's official entry for the foreign language film category of the Academy Awards in 2007, Lee Chang-dong's "Milyang" a.k.a "Secret Sunshine" arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original U.S. trailer; exclusive video interview with director director Lee Chang-dong; and behind the scenes featurette. The disc also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim. In Korean, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

A hopeful woman - Jeon Do-yeon

Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon, The Scandal, The Housemaid), a widow in her early 30s, has just relocated with her son to Miryang (apparently meaning secret sunshine in Mandarin), the provincial town where her late husband was born. Hoping to rebuild her life and find peace, she quickly sets up a tiny shop where she could teach piano lessons.

Very soon, however, Shin-ae begins to realize that Miryang may not be the ideal place to start a new life. Her neighbors, the majority of whom are devoted Christians, try to lift her spirits up, insisting that life is beautiful, full of joy and happiness, but anywhere she goes and everything she does constantly reminds her about her late husband.

Then a shocking event turns Snin-ae’s life upside down and she begins to question God and everything she has ever believed in. Those who she has befriended flock to help her but their words and actions only add to her pain and misery. Alone, hurt and profoundly disillusioned, Shin-ae slowly begins to drift away from reality.

It is difficult to describe with simple words the emotional and spiritual collapse the main protagonist in Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine suffers. It is so intense, it borders insanity.

The film, however, does not focus exclusively on Shin-ae’s collapse. Rather, it uses it to question God, faith, and ultimately the morality of those who embrace God as the authority in their lives. This is not to say that Secret Sunshine is a reactionary film, but the majority of the questions in it do not necessarily demand answers.

The film is effectively divided into two acts. In the first, Shin-ae is hopeful, willing to live her life the "right way". Her desire to blend in even inspires a lonely mechanic (Song Kang-ho, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Thirst) to believe that he could love her and she could love him back.

In the second act, Shin-ae undergoes a massive character transformation -- and to a certain degree so do some of the people around her. The more she suffers, the stronger the mechanic’s desire to get close to her becomes, further exacerbating her pain and frustration and solidifying her conviction that no one understands what she is going through.

Because the people who surround Snin-ae are Christians, Christianity may seem like the obvious recipient of the film’s criticism -- but it is not. Rather, it is the immorality of people who blindly follow fundamental beliefs and justify it with their love of God.

The film features a phenomenal performance by Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon, who in 2007 won Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her gradual disconnect from reality is truly heartbreaking.

The camerawork is steady and measured, with portions of the film looking as if they were borrowed from a documentary feature. The editing could have been slightly more convincing, especially during the second half of the film, where selected sequences are unnecessary long.

Note: Secret Sunshine was South Korea's official entry for the foreign language film category of the Academy Awards in 2007.

Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

This rather recent award winning Korean film looks terrific on Blu-ray. The image is consistently crisp and sharp, boasting terrific detail and impressive clarity. The outdoor scenes, in particular, are incredibly vibrant. Color-reproduction is also convincing -- the blues, greens, yellows, browns, and blacks look lush but never boosted. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern. There are no heavy compression artifacts either. I also did not see any traces of harmful post-production corrections. On the contrary, the transfer has wonderful organic characteristics, which I have every reason to believe replicate the film's theatrical look. Lastly, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. (Note: This is Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track has a strong dynamic amplitude, but it never excels in areas such as surround and bass activity. Of course, this is not to say that there are technical issues; the film's actual dynamic field is simply fairly modest. The dialog is always crisp, clear, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. Also, there are no pops, cracks, hiss, or audio dropouts. The English translation is excellent.

Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lee Chang-dong - in this video interview, conducted by film critic Kim Young-jin in Seoul, South Korean, exclusively for Criterion, director Lee Chang-dong discusses the complex themes in Secret Sunshine, its characters, and production history. In Korean, with optional English subtitles. (25 min, 1080p).

• On the set of "Secret Sunshine" - this video piece features on-set interviews with actors Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho, as well as behind the scenes footage. In Korean, with optional English subtitles. (7 min, 1080i).

• Trailer - the original U.S. trailer for Secret Sunshine. In English and Korean, with imposed English subtitles where necessary. (2 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim.

Secret Sunshine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine is powerful, grounded in reality film about a woman driven to the edge. Asking important questions but not necessarily demanding answers, the film is likely to inspire some interesting debates about the immorality of organized religion among those who would be seeing it for the first time. As expected, Criterion's presentation of Secret Sunshine is of exceptionally high quality. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.