A young woman comes to the home town of his husband after he passed away in an accident. She barely settles down in this small town, but shortly after, loses her little son in a kidnapping and all her hopes... This could lead to all kinds following plots in a normal movie: find a new partner and being happy finally; or depressed enough to struggle and finally kill herself... She does try to kill herself, but not after a series of severe fights, with God. She trusts in God, only to find that God seems to forgive everyone, even the killer. Well, I should be careful here about God, the movie doesn't mean a thing against God. The way the movie deals the issue is quite interesting: not in the woman's point of view or from God's perspective (in this way, there would be lots of grass growing, clouds flying views, I suppose). Rather, it's from a third party's eye, the movie let us to perceive and doesn't explain a thing.

The movie wouldn't be so interesting were there only the woman. There's this man who's everywhere around the woman and obviously in love with her, but in his own way. He's a funny guy, like a clown I should say, who shamelessly hangs around our heroine. The combination of these two, the woman full of tension, crying and throwing up always, and the man, smiling and talking stupidly, ends up in a good balance of emotions: nothing absurdly wrong or too tedious.

Highly recommend.

The long-awaited follow-up to Lee Chang-Dong's masterpiece Oasis. Americans waited longer than most. The film is finally seeing a release three and a half years after it played at Cannes. It's well worth the wait - it's a near masterpiece. Jeon Do-yeon is outstanding as a young widow trying to make a go of it by moving back to her husband's hometown, Milyang (the actual title of the film, which is Mandarin for Secret Sunshine), with her five year-old son. It doesn't take long for a second tragedy to strike Jeon, which leaves her completely destroyed. The film doesn't go to the expected places. It's all about the pain of grief, but it strays far away from melodrama. Jeon discovers Christianity, and I expected that she would eventually come face to face with the silence of God, a la Ingmar Bergman, but even that doesn't happen. Jong Chan, a very famous Korean actor whom you may remember from The Host and Thirst, has a great role as a lonely mechanic who pesters Jeon for her affection. His character is perfectly balanced between nuisance and pathos. I haven't seen Oasis in years, but I recall it being kind of a grandiose melodrama. This is just so subtle and closely observed.