Post Secret Sunshine

Since there are already several well-written blogs on the substance in Secret Sunshine, I want to focus in on the end. Lee Chang-Dong creates these really profound films and completes them with these endings that are open to interpretation.

While in Poetry Mija commits suicide, the ending is only implying that, and knowing the way everything else in Lee's movies work, that might not be the end of it (though I do believe that is in fact what Mija did). Secret Sunshine left off with Shin-ae cutting her hair while Kim held the mirror. After that last scene, the camera panned to sunshine across the dirt in the garden--secret sunshine, the kind of blessings or little graces that often get overlooked.

The ending of Secret Sunshine was, to me, hopeful. While Mija's ending wasn't so hopeful, but rather a plea to remind everyone not to overlook the little things, Shin-ae's ending was one that left room for the rebuilding of a new person in herself. After all, cutting hair is often used symbolically to represent a change in a character, I think the same went for Shin-ae.

As the movie ended, I couldn't stop from laughing because I love how Lee Chang-Dong always leaves the audience off. I like to compare it to being taken on this sinister but beautiful bus tour and then being dropped off a random stop and having the bus leave before you can turn around and get back on. It's funny, while at the same time not at all--and there's always something pretty special to learn along the way.

Secret Sunshine

What I loved about two films that we've watched in Signs and Wonders is that they left me humble.

There is a constant tendency of us as Christians to think that we know all the answers of the tragedy, because we know Jesus, who dies on the cross to carry our burden. Making Jesus as the "first kit" of any problems.

I do think that God is our helper, comforter, and able. I do believe in God, who is real in our lives that mends broken things and feeds us everyday. However, the problem is not in God, but in us.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." is like the favorite Bible verse that we refer to when we see people in difficulties or when we find ourselves in the middle of the storm and weariness.

However, we forget the verse after it: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls".

Yes, "take my yoke upon you."

It is very evident that God has his own way of working things out. In the case of this movie, where it is very easy to be skeptical about God, because of the main character's attitude, but it is clear that Ms. Lee is the closest person to God in the movie.

It is true that all the things that happened to Ms. Lee is the consequence for acting in front of people like she has things that she does not, which provoked jealousy. Ultimately, leading to the kidnapping of her son demanding ransom. Despite all the anger toward God, ironically, at the same time, she seemed to be most intimate with God, know more about Him than anybody else.

God's grace doesn't come easy. Before Peter was able to catch 153 fishes, he had fish all day and night. I think that is the mystery of relationship between God's sovereignty and our will. When we hit the limit, that is when God intervenes.

Sometimes, our prideful knowledge of Jesus limits us to really encounter him. It makes us lazy and oblivious about what it is to live a life of questioning and searching for answers.

Truth must set us free, but I am realizing more and more that the truth that I believe in bounded and restricted me. I guess what I held as a truth was not a truth, but a self righteous belief. Yes, there is a big difference between "truth" and mere "belief".

I thought that this movie was a tug of war between "truth" and "belief".

One thing that makes truth distinct from belief is that it cannot be comprehended, but it is always there just like that sunlight shining Ms. Lee's dark room.

I believe in full "freedom". Not only the freedom of my soul as we long for heaven, but also of my body and mind.

But there is a yoke that I have to carry, tears that I have to shed, the pains that I have to observe. In order to learn how endure  for the truth that I long for and to be freed from my beliefs.

If anything made sense in this blog...

Secret Sunshine: Defying Expectations

He's not the hero Shin-ae deserves, but the one Shin-ae needs.

 

Lee Chang-dong must really love playing with people’s expectations, because both Poetry and Secret Sunshine utterly trampled mine. Both start with normal characters with some issues that we expect to see resolved simply and easily by the end of the film, and then Lee utterly crushes them within the first half hour of their respective films.

I honestly didn’t think Secret Sunshine could be more shocking than Poetry, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. At least poor Mija was able to continue on with her life as normally as possible while coping with her monster of a grandson; Shin-ae never catches a single break. Everything good and wholesome that she comes into contact with is ripped from her with all the finesse of a jet plane in a death spiral, with the only exception being Kim, and she just walks all over him. Mija, no matter how desperately she acts out in her anguish, never becomes annoying nor too cartoonish; she is genuinely sympathetic throughout the movie as the audience experiences the same shocks she does thanks to Lee’s excellent direction.

But if there’s one character that really stands out to me, it is Kim. Like we discussed after the movie, Kim is pretty easily interpreted as a stand-in for God; always present, always caring, and always wanting love in return for his actions. The character never reaches the level of creepiness that I thought he would (again, Lee’s ability to derail our expectations), and instead remains a likeable and very important opposite to Shin-ae. He became my favorite character by the end of the film, an incredible feat considering that his character and personality remain completely unchanged throughout the film. He is a knight in shining armor, even if he doesn’t look the part. Despite his longing for Shin-ae, the one time she actually comes to him for sex he turns her down, refusing to take advantage of her.

And yet, Shin-ae still suffers despite his presence. The longer the film runs, the darker and more twisted her mind becomes as her tragedies just keep compiling on top of her. Suddenly, whatever hopeful expectations I had for her vanished, and then I was expecting the worst from every new scenario she experienced. I was actually expecting the scene in the barbershop at the end to turn violent, as the girl wanted revenge for Shin-ae abandoning her in the alleyway with those boys. I was expecting Shin-ae to try to commit suicide again while cutting her own hair.

Blast you, Lee Chang-dong, you and your brilliantly sadistic directing abilities. Only a master filmmaker could take a combination of chick-flick and generic Christian film ideas, turn them upside down, and still keep us watching despite the horrors you showed us. No matter what I do, I doubt I’ll be able to watch another film of yours without having my expectations mangled and maimed by the end.

Secret Sunshine

The film last night was quite a surprise. I expected something much more uplifting than Poetry, yet instead I was shown a film that seemed to almost constantly trick you about what it was about! I'm not complaining, because it was still a very brilliant form of storytelling. I suppose it was simply the cultural difference that I'm not used to; this filmmaker got all the logistics out of the way so that he could tell a different kind of story. We're so accustomed to stories that may focus on only one type of thing, but Secret Sunshine ran them all together to show a larger picture.

Theological ideas brought up in this story truly provide something to wrestle with. We discussed the symbolism of Mr. Kim representing God in the story, and there are plenty of great instances in the story where that is an amazing symbolistic idea that even makes sense, but struggle with it. I'm sure that I'm just imagining it in the wrong way, but for some reason I can't accept the idea that Mr. Kim's character especially is supposed to represent God in a human form for her to more closely relate to Him. Isn't that supposed to be Jesus?

I understand that we, as Christians, can represent Jesus by being loving and compassionate especially to those who are hurting, but Mr. Kim never acted in that way. He only began pursuing her for romantic reasons, and at the end simply becomes the really good friend who can hold a mirror for those who have a problem getting their hair cut in salons.

Overall, I appreciated the idea of sunshine, which I can more closely relate to the way God seems to operate. The sunshine provides light (which leads to a whole other symbolistic road I won't travel now) and power for plants to grow. It is persistent in the way that it comes everyday to awaken the world, and we generally believe that it still exists, even when we can't see it through rainy days.

Secret Sunshine

       The conversation at Signs and Wonders was really long tonight. Everybody was finding stuff to talk about. In fact, they were on such a roll that I think they imagined a little bit of symbolism that wasn't there....but anyway.....
       The main character Mrs. Lee went to visit a man who was in prison. He was the man who had murdered her son, and she, who had recently come to believe in Jesus, was going to forgive him. When she told the man that she had become a believer, and before she could tell him, "I forgive you," the man said, "I've become a Christian, too." Then he went on and on about how he has peace now, and he prays every day, and God has forgiven him.        
       Now isn't that just awesome? (As long as he's telling the truth, that is. At first, with the look he had on his face, I thought he was just trying to make fun of her.) But if you believe him, then that's awesome, right? All the other Christians thought it was awesome when they heard of the man's testimony.
       But Mrs. Lee was stunned. God forgave him? I think her exact words were, "How dare He?" How dare he give this murderer perfect peace and grace, just like that, while I, the innocent one, suffered agonizingly over my loss? And more importantly, how dare He forgive him before I could, how dare God forgive him before I, the victim, the one sinned against, had any say in whether this man should be forgiven yet? Mrs. Lee had decided that it was high time to forgive this man, so she goes to him as soon as possible, and when she gets there, God's already forgiven him!
      Somebody pointed out, during the Signs and Wonders discussion, that it seemed to be a pride thing. Oh, I, The Righteous Mrs. Lee, am going to share God's grace with this worthless, undeserving sinner (if you've really forgiven someone, would you still consider them "undeserving"? Hmm..). But I think it was pride mixed with jealousy that really made it a big problem for her. She gets there, and Bam! the worthless sinner isn't so worthless in God's eyes; in fact, God puts this man AS HIGH ON HIS PRIORITY LIST AS HER. In fact, maybe God even gave him salvation and peace before SHE got it. The murderer getting special treatment over the victim. Not. Fair. But just.
      It reminds me of something I read this week in Ezekiel: " Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal." (Ezek. 33:17). God was saying that it's OUR standards and OUR timetable that are messed up. His ways are just.
      Whether Mrs. Lee ever forgave the man remains to be seen. She got mad at God, and then the movie ended. Kinda reminds you of the book of Jonah, doesn't it?