Listening to the hidden sunshine: reflections caused by the Korean film "Secret Sun"

What kind of place is Miryang? What new things will happen under the sun?

Widow Shen Ai, with her five-year-old son, the only hope in her life, drove from Seoul and moved south to Miryang City, her husband's hometown. She wanted to stay away from a place with many painful memories. Her husband had an affair and died in a car accident. What kind of complicated mood did she go to Miryang? Or, what solution will Mir Yang bring to her life?

The first scene in the movie "Dark Sun" is shown to the audience. It is a child looking up from the front seat window to a vast sky with a few white clouds floating in the air and sunshine flooding the horizon. On the way to Miryang, Shen Ai's car broke down and she was waiting for Zong Can, the owner of the garage, to come to help.

The lady owner of the neighboring pharmacy was concerned about Shen Ai, who had just moved in. She gave her a Bible and said to her: "God loves you. Trust Him." Although it seems unbelievable that God cannot be seen with the naked eye, there are also too many things in the world. Many things that are invisible to the eye. She responded: "I don't even believe what I can see with my eyes!" You seemed to eavesdrop on the resentment in her dark heart. The husband who once trusted and trusted me for life, and who said he loved me, went behind my back. Love other women. The love he talks about is just a lie! Her heart, which had been cut, was still full of festering and pus-filled blood stains.

One night, she left her five-year-old child at home and had fun at karaoke with her new friends. When her child called from home, she was already tipsy. She just wanted to relax and immerse herself in the colorful singing and dancing, temporarily forgetting the pain and worries of the past. Unexpectedly, when I returned home, I would face a future where my child would be kidnapped and tortured. Shen Ai asked Zong Can, who had been waiting behind her, "I have lost my only hope. If it were you, would you still be able to live?" The tragedy struck like lightning unprepared, as if the building inside had been shaken by an earthquake. The swaying heart was now burned by a raging fire. You clearly hear the echoes of heart-wrenching and desperate wails coming from the abyss.

Miryang turns out to be a valley! So, where is her way out?

Shen Ai walked into the church with a broken and vulnerable soul. She heard the pastor praying, "God will heal and release your pain." She began to cry loudly, and the pain in her heart was released like a torrent. Later, in church and small groups, she heard the message of divine love: God loved her and gave her the Savior Jesus, who was crucified on the cross to atone for her sins. She opened the closed door of her heart and let the light of holy love that descended from the sky shine into her parched heart. For the first time, the brilliance of being loved by someone flashed across her face, and she said that she finally understood what the true meaning of rebirth was. She had peace in her heart, felt happy again, and felt that God loved her and was always watching over her.

The ending is very satisfying, the church is accomplished, and all the believers are happy. oh! No, the drama is not over yet...

Since Shen Ai accepted the gift of "God loves her", she has actively shared her experience of God's love with her neighbors. She accidentally caught a glimpse of the murderer's daughter being bullied while driving, and felt the tug-of-war between two forces within her: step in to help, or hide her face and ignore it? She chose to hang up the flag of unforgiveness and resentment and turned around to leave. You may be thinking to yourself, why did she insist on going to prison to forgive the murderer when she had not been able to face the murderer's daughter before? Is she trying to put on a mask of spiritual pride and offer mercy to murderers? Or to prove that she has received God's love and transform herself from the role of victim to the one issuing amnesty?

Is forgiveness an action or a thought? Is forgiveness a process or a decision? Does forgiveness come from you or from God?

▲Shen Ai is lying on the sofa where her son often lies, missing her son.

Can you accept the director's answer? Or rather, a challenge?

When Shen Ai faced the murderer, she never expected that he would look calm and steady, and hear him say that as soon as he entered prison, he had accepted God's love and forgiveness, and his sins had been completely forgiven. Now I have peace every day and can sleep well. After she was released from jail, she passed out in the parking lot. She angrily told the people in the church group that he had already been forgiven by God and did not need me to forgive him anymore. How could he get God's forgiveness before I could forgive him?

There was a sharp voice of resentment in her heart, and she said to God: "You say you love me, but how can you go behind my back and forgive the murderer first?" Her anger turned into revenge, stealing, destroying gatherings, and even seducing the West. The pharmacy owner went to the suburbs to have sex with her... Shen Ai made a final challenge to God. She looked up at the sky, cut her wrists with a fruit knife, and then said to God, "Did you see it?" She once protested to God, I will not lose to you. She gave up her life to demonstrate to God.

Do we have the right and ability to give sunshine or reject it?

When she felt the pain of the wound, she finally asked for help, please help me! Hidden in the valley, a cry for survival burst out, which was the first ray of light in the dark heart.

After she came out of the mental hospital, Zong Can invited her to dinner. She wanted to get a haircut first. Changing your hairstyle symbolizes a desire to start life again. However, the girl who cut her hair was the murderer's daughter. Her hair had just been cut in half. She closed her eyes and felt her heart aching again. She immediately rushed out of the barber shop.

It turns out that rebirth and renewal are not something that can happen overnight.

The neighbor said to her, how could anyone rush out with half of their hair cut off? Halfway through her words, she was suddenly afraid that she would be irritated by saying the wrong thing, so she immediately covered her mouth with her hands. When she saw this, she burst out laughing, and the two of them laughed together. You can hear a soft light emitting from the laughter. In the soft light, you find that she can begin to laugh at the unbearable things in life! This is the second ray of sunshine hidden deep in the heart, overflowing.

She returned to the backyard of her home and put the mirror on the table. Zong Can walked into the backyard and took the initiative to pick up the mirror for her. She looked at herself in the mirror and wanted to continue cutting her hair. You have to capture this symbolic shot - chewing it carefully, she is willing to face the moment of her inner failure. Have you seen a hint of the third secret light pouring out from the attic in your heart?

What secrets does the sunshine of Miyang contain? Does Shen Ai, who is bathing in the sunshine, understand that the sunshine is not only reserved for Sunday, but exists every day and everywhere? The last shot, with the cut hair, shines on a wasteland with sunshine. Did you see that the dense sunshine slowly shone into her desolate heart?

When the director chooses to put faith on the stage of mainstream culture, what does he want to say? Is it objective or correct? If it were you, what would you choose to say? In addition to delving into the origins of pardons, he touches on the responses that suffering elicits from both those involved and bystanders. The angle of the camera shines both inside and outside the four walls of the church; it shines on both the sky and the earth.

When you watch "Dark Sun", do you see the sunshine captured by the director, or the sunshine in your own heart?

If you look at "Secret Sun", you will see that there is nothing new under the sun. The sun shines on both good people and bad people. When you look up for the God in the sky, you must also lower your head and gaze into the darkness inside to know which window to open to let the sunlight pour in.

"Miyang" award-winning record
Korean movie "Miyang"
After being released on May 23, 2007,
Winning consecutively at the Cannes Film Festival
Best Actress Award,
Asian Film Festival Best Actress Award,
Best Director Award,
Film awards such as Best Picture Award.

Profile of director Lee Cang-dong of "Secret Sun"
"Dark Sun" was inspired by reading Li Zhongjun's novel "The Story of Insects" in 1980. He likes to take pictures of small things in daily life and discover the hidden importance behind ordinary things. His purpose in filming "Dark Sun" is to hope that the film will bring many unexpected twists and turns, and to use visible things to describe invisible things.
Li Cangdong was born into a family background that adheres to Confucianism. He himself has no religious beliefs, and his wife's family is a devout Christian. He hopes to use movies as a tool to lead the audience to examine their own inner world through the stories of ordinary people in their lives.

Journalist profile
Tan Deyi, majoring in English literature and language teaching. Love reading, writing, walking in the mountains and forests, and listening to the sound of waves. She had three children with her husband and settled in the small town of Glendora, Southern California.