Secret Sunshine in SF, director in person

The SF Film Society just hosted a small screening of the Korean film "Secret Sunshine" in San Francisco a couple of days ago, and director Lee Chang-dong also came over from Korea to attend the screening.

lee chang dong (right) greeting the audiences (photo by sh)

the film is about a woman moving to his deceased husband's hometown with his son, but tragedy just never stops happening to her... the film was a favorite at cannes last year and the lead female jeon do yeon did take home the best actress award..

the director lee chang dong is also a prominent artist in korea, as he is not only a director, but also an established writer, and in 2003 he was appointed by the president of korea to be the minister of culture and tourism. he later resigned the post though.

i think the film is well made, lee's film is always about the suffering of ordinary people and it shows. most of the scenes are carefully crafted and the actings are fine tuned. both jeon and the lead song kang ho did a great job.. the only thing i dont like is that it's just too miserable... if u like korean style tragedy, it should be enjoyable, otherwise, if u are already in a bad mood, its better to wait to see it until u feel better.

lee, through an interepreter, shared some of his experience making the film, whats interesting is that he just didn't seem to enjoy his experience as the minister of culture and tourism that much, he said this experience didn't influence his filmmaking at all and he would never want to do this job again...