Secret Sunshine, a 2007 South Korean film, is above all else a tale of gaining and then losing faith. It revolves around a non-religious mother named Sin-ae whose son Jun is kidnapped, and then murdered when the kidnapper was dissatisfied with the ransom. Sin-ae, who already lost her husband, is in grief, until she takes comfort in Christianity and surprisingly achieves happiness. But when she visits the prison to forgive her son's killer, ("love your enemies") she is shaken to hear he has also turned to Christianity and believes God has already forgiven him.
The movie doesn't appear to be anything special before the kidnapping. When Jun is kidnapped, I was surprised that when Sin-ae is on the phone with the kidnapper that the audience doesn't hear what he's saying. The movie starts getting more interesting as a tale of faith. I'd have to say I don't quite understand why after all she's been through she comes to think of God as a loving being. She'd have plenty of reason to doubt that. But I totally understand her frustration with her son's murderer being "forgiven" for his terrible crime, before she could have any say in the matter. Anger and frustration with God is, I think, a sympathetic subject, something that Ingmar Bergman explored to a degree, although his movies were less about anger than despair with the "silence of God." The movie doesn't seem to deny God's existence, and I'm not sure it really endorses Sin-ae's disillusionment, but it offers her perspective for consideration. For many, Secret Sunshine may be a hard film to take, but it shines a light on personal tragedy and a victim's relationship with God.
The movie doesn't appear to be anything special before the kidnapping. When Jun is kidnapped, I was surprised that when Sin-ae is on the phone with the kidnapper that the audience doesn't hear what he's saying. The movie starts getting more interesting as a tale of faith. I'd have to say I don't quite understand why after all she's been through she comes to think of God as a loving being. She'd have plenty of reason to doubt that. But I totally understand her frustration with her son's murderer being "forgiven" for his terrible crime, before she could have any say in the matter. Anger and frustration with God is, I think, a sympathetic subject, something that Ingmar Bergman explored to a degree, although his movies were less about anger than despair with the "silence of God." The movie doesn't seem to deny God's existence, and I'm not sure it really endorses Sin-ae's disillusionment, but it offers her perspective for consideration. For many, Secret Sunshine may be a hard film to take, but it shines a light on personal tragedy and a victim's relationship with God.