Secret Sunshine. 2007. Written and directed by Lee Chang-dong

Film

No upcoming events

Secret Sunshine. 2007. South Korea. Directed by Lee Chang-dong. Courtesy Ida/IFC Films

Secret Sunshine. 2007. South Korea. Written and directed by Lee Chang-dong. Based on Lee Chung-joon’s short story “Story of Worm.” With Jeon Do-yeon, Song Kang-ho. 35mm. In Korean; English subtitles. 142 min.

Hoping to rebuild her life, Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) relocates to her dead husband’s hometown of Milyang with her young son. There she encounters such local characters as a mechanic (Song Kang-ho) who is immediately smitten by her sophisticated “Seoul” persona, a storeowner who finds her unbearably arrogant, and a pharmacist who believes only God can console the grieving soul. Hoping only to be left alone, Shin-ae is instead beset by a cascade of tragedies that test her ability to persevere. This heart-wrenching picture confronts questions of faith, forgiveness, and redemption head-on. Jeon’s tour-de-force performance earned her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.

This film accompanies Cinema of Trauma: The Films of Lee Chang-dong.

Past events

Mon, Feb 4, 2019, 6:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
Sat, Feb 2, 2019, 3:30 p.m.

Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker

MoMA, Floor T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].