"Miryang" (literally translated "secret sunshine") is the name of a small town in the less densely populated part of Korea, which we see the protagonist Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) driving towards at the start of the movie. Traveling with her young son, she wants to leave Seoul to start a new life in Miryang, the hometown of her late husband just lost in a traffic accident. With her easy, friendly personality, she soon establishes herself as a piano teacher in this new home, making friends and being courted (ever so shyly) by a 39-year-old, likable, happy-go-lucky auto-repair shop owner. Prospects for a happy new life after bereavement seems around the corner until she make the mistake of going around checking out real estate properties as if she intends to buy but does not really have the money for. (She does that probably to reassure the townspeople that she is financially sound). This unfortunately induced a school bus driver to kidnap her son and, when not getting the money he wants, kill him.
All the above happens in the first hour of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie. The remainder of the movie is devoted to probing Lee's mental state after suffering from this horrible, devastating double bereavement.
In its skillful story-telling, under an easy direction style, this movie is one of those (my apologies for saying so) designed with the aim of fetching the lead actress awards. With resounding success, it became instrumental to Jeon Do-yeon earning the highly esteemed Cannes best actress earlier this year. A most deserved win, I hasten to add.
Watching this movie is sometimes like watching Jeon taking a series of tests, each one harder than the one before, towards winning the highest honour. This starts with a sequence of establishing scenes to show the bonding between the little boy and mother, Lee, who is sometimes childlike herself in the simplicity of her affection. Then comes the kidnapper's phone call, a scene Jeon handles with pitch perfection precision. The scene of victim body identification at the riverside is shot with a combination of distance shot and close ups, where Jeon, through both facial expression and body language, conveys the mother's agonizing journey through shock, disbelief and clinging to one last hope.
The range of emotions now gets even more complex. There in the painful, tearless silence facing her wailing, screaming mother-in-law (the murdered boy's grandmother) and the eerie feeling that her son is still around in the house. Then comes the most difficult part. Quite naturally, Lee seeks religious solace, through an Evangelist-ish group. Smile begins to come back to her face, as well as a serene, peaceful glow, until she decides to visit her son's murderer in jail to personally give him her forgiveness.
This is probably the award-winning scene. She holds the flowers she brings to show the prisoner that it signifies her forgiveness. With an even more serene and loving expression, the prisoner thanks her and reassured her that since he started serving his jail term, he has sought, and been granted God's forgiveness. The audience will observe the subtle change in the expression on Lee's face, so superbly portrayed by Jeon. Back at the parking lot, while her companions on the visit are chatting merrily about how wonderful the transformation of the prisoner has been, Jeon remains ominously taciturn. Finally, she drops the flowers and murmurs "If God has already forgiven him, what is there for me to forgive?" and sinks on the ground, fainting right beside the car.
In the remainder of the movie Jeon portrays Lee's heart-wrenching struggle between a desire to forgive and an instinct to hate a performance that earns her a place among the best of the very best.
All the above happens in the first hour of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie. The remainder of the movie is devoted to probing Lee's mental state after suffering from this horrible, devastating double bereavement.
In its skillful story-telling, under an easy direction style, this movie is one of those (my apologies for saying so) designed with the aim of fetching the lead actress awards. With resounding success, it became instrumental to Jeon Do-yeon earning the highly esteemed Cannes best actress earlier this year. A most deserved win, I hasten to add.
Watching this movie is sometimes like watching Jeon taking a series of tests, each one harder than the one before, towards winning the highest honour. This starts with a sequence of establishing scenes to show the bonding between the little boy and mother, Lee, who is sometimes childlike herself in the simplicity of her affection. Then comes the kidnapper's phone call, a scene Jeon handles with pitch perfection precision. The scene of victim body identification at the riverside is shot with a combination of distance shot and close ups, where Jeon, through both facial expression and body language, conveys the mother's agonizing journey through shock, disbelief and clinging to one last hope.
The range of emotions now gets even more complex. There in the painful, tearless silence facing her wailing, screaming mother-in-law (the murdered boy's grandmother) and the eerie feeling that her son is still around in the house. Then comes the most difficult part. Quite naturally, Lee seeks religious solace, through an Evangelist-ish group. Smile begins to come back to her face, as well as a serene, peaceful glow, until she decides to visit her son's murderer in jail to personally give him her forgiveness.
This is probably the award-winning scene. She holds the flowers she brings to show the prisoner that it signifies her forgiveness. With an even more serene and loving expression, the prisoner thanks her and reassured her that since he started serving his jail term, he has sought, and been granted God's forgiveness. The audience will observe the subtle change in the expression on Lee's face, so superbly portrayed by Jeon. Back at the parking lot, while her companions on the visit are chatting merrily about how wonderful the transformation of the prisoner has been, Jeon remains ominously taciturn. Finally, she drops the flowers and murmurs "If God has already forgiven him, what is there for me to forgive?" and sinks on the ground, fainting right beside the car.
In the remainder of the movie Jeon portrays Lee's heart-wrenching struggle between a desire to forgive and an instinct to hate a performance that earns her a place among the best of the very best.