20 Amazing South Korean Movies You Must See Before You Die
11. Secret Sunshine
Director Lee Chang-dong, at one time South Korea's Minister Of Culture, has made a name for himself with a series of movies exploring suffering, loss and psychological trauma in a naturalistic style. Secret Sunshine is the perfect movie to demonstrate that.
Jeon Do-yeon plays a recently widowed woman who moves with her son to her dead husband's home town, a small community of pushy, and gossipy, Christians. Already struggling to adjust to this new life, she completely cracks when her son is abducted and eventually turns up dead.
The movie can be a distressing experience to watch, a story about grief, depression and the lies that people tell even to themselves, but it is all held together by a riveting central performance from Jeon.
Winning the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, Jeon gives a harrowing and vanity-free insight into a closed-off woman torn apart by a descent from grief into madness.