Cannes. Secret Sunshine.

"Not a frame is wasted in this 142-minute Korean drama from director Lee Chang-Dong, which begins with a mother and son stranded on the road to Miryang, the Korean town whose Chinese characters translate as the film's title," writes Premiere's Glenn Kenny. "The first 40 minutes or so comprise fish-out-of-water comedy/drama of the sort that might have Hollywood pursuing remake rights, but an awful tragedy sends the movie and its heroine into another direction altogether."

"Secret Sunshine [in Competition] is an ambitious, almost novelistic pic by writer-helmer Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) that ultimately fails to dramatize its lead character's conflicts in cinematic terms," writes Variety's Derek Elley. "Credit amassed by pic's slow-burning beginning and interesting mid-section is dissipated by a long final act in which the air is let out of the bag."

Highlights from the press conference.

Earlier: Scott Foundas.

Updates: "Secret Sunshine is not an uber-arty film - like some of the competition's more pretentious standouts - but in its own sharp, sensitive and fully naturalistic mode, it expresses profound human truths in a fully realized way that has been rare at this year's festival," writes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE.

"The film features outstanding performances by its two leads: Jeon Do-yeon as the story's central figure and Song Kang-ho, probably Korea's most popular actor at the moment, here playing more of a supporting role," notes Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter. "The film ends on a neutral note as if Lee were telling a story with no real end. It's a life and at some point the story must stop, but the life continues with the future never entirely certain. This is a considerable achievement: To offer up a mix of movie genres yet make a story come together as a perfectly fitting and comprehensible whole."

"Nothing brings an uproar faster than the topic of religion and Secret Sunshine doesn't hold back in questioning the existence of God or critiquing the role of religion in society," writes luna6 at Lunapark6:

It's no secret Do-yeon Jeon is a wonderful actress, just reference her performance in You Are My Sunshine or My Mother Is A Mermaid as proof. Yet, the brevity of pain she was able to express during her descent into darkness in Secret Sunshine was something to absolutely marvel at. During the final portions of the movie my hands were literally clenched to the armrests, out of this gripping fear of what she could possibly do next. I was actually praying another tragedy would not occur in her life.

Meanwhile, Kang-ho Song seems to get better and better with each movie that he performs in.

Via Jon Pais at Twitch.

Update, 5/25: "Some fervently admired Secret Sunshine, others thought it slow and forced; and you can get those varying opinions from the authors of this journal," write Richard and Mary Corliss for Time. "The big news here is Jeon's performance, which is being touted for the Best Actress prize."

Update, 5/26: "When the prizes are handed out tomorrow, it's almost inconceivable that Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine will not be among the major winners," writes Dennis Lim for IFC News. "The film's secret weapon is its disarming plainness - a transparency that confers a kind of grace and belies an emotional complexity. It's about as limpid and unexploitative a film as you could imagine on the subject of human suffering."

Update, 5/27: "In the end, I found the film's dogged descent into madness dramatically unsatisfying," writes Mike D'Angelo at ScreenGrab.

Update, 5/28: "What strikes you first about this film is how true to life it feels, even in the somewhat over-the-top second half," writes Darcy Paquet at Koreanfilm.org. "If there's any philosophy to be found in Secret Sunshine, it's a faith that, in presenting a story as close to 'reality' as possible, something worthwhile will emerge. It's a belief in honesty - honesty in filmmaking, in facing life with no illusions. It may sound like a lofty ambition, but in practice it's not much to hang onto. We traverse several circles of hell together with Shin-ae, and then emerge with empty hands."

Update, 5/30: "Winning best actress award at the Cannes film festival has not made South Korea's Jeon Do-yeon a global star, she said on Wednesday, but it has made her family a lot nicer to her." A Reuters story.

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Cannes @ 60. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 24, 2007 9:08 AM