Every time I watch Lee Changdong's movies, I have seen three of them, "Burning", "Mints", and "Miryang", the most obvious feeling to me is depression. It takes a few days to dissipate slowly. Probably because his films are all about serious and heavy themes, such as the darkness of human nature and the questioning of beliefs, and the director is probably very pessimistic or even a little desperate about these themes, so his films will give people this feeling. It is a very depressing feeling, but his expression is very real and meticulous, which invisibly increases the audience's pessimism about human nature and reflection on beliefs, and even doubts.
This time I watched Miryang for the second time. I watched it once a few years ago. At that time, the impact on me was mainly emotional, and I didn’t think too much about the theme of the film. At that time, I thought it was mainly about the Korean Christian Church. Criticism of various phenomena, doubting whether faith really gives people the power to forgive.
After the second brush, there are some new understandings and feelings, especially the understanding of the role of Shen Ae. She has always been a person living in a fantasy. Her husband was obviously cheating, but she believed that he only loved their mother and daughter when her brother mentioned it, and sternly scolded his brother to let him stop talking. After her husband died, she brought her children to live in Miryang, her hometown, to show that her love for her husband was great. But the real motivation in her heart is to build a new and beautiful character in a new place; when she first arrived in Miryang, she obviously didn't have a lot of money, but she looked everywhere, said that she wanted to invest in real estate, and even invited her new friends to sing K. ; After entering the church, she was still playing an unreal self, going to prison to tell the murderer of her son that she wanted to forgive him, but when she found that the murderer had been forgiven by God and found peace, she completely collapsed , Only in the outburst of hysteria, the pain that had been suppressed for many years was released.
The director gives us a glimpse of her childhood through her self-report, and also explains the background of her character formation. When she was a child, as long as she cried, her father locked her in the bathroom. She could only beat her head with a spoon to express her inner pain, instead of crying to vent her emotions. Since then, she began to suppress herself and learned to use fantasy to express her inner pain. Distorted reality, make yourself less painful. After getting married, her husband cheated frequently and prevented him from continuing to learn the piano he loves. He clearly thought that his father was a cruel and cruel person, and his husband was a pervert, but he had been beautifying them unconsciously to avoid facing himself. Sad reality. Later, his son was kidnapped and then killed. When the murderer passed by him, he was obviously tearing him to pieces, but he didn't feel any resentment, but when he saw him coming, he avoided looking directly at him. There are several scenes in the movie to express Shin Ae's small actions, such as when she was going to register her son's death, her hand kept scratching her neck, she had a huge fear of some tiny bugs, and she often shouted hysterically, I think this is Everything is a reaction to the pain and deformation that is repressed in the heart, and the body is sometimes more honest than the words.
And just when the pain was on the verge of collapse, the church gave Shen Ai an emotional outlet. When Shen Ai was on the way to the child's death registration, she suddenly heard music from the church, and she stumbled in following the music. There is a meeting to heal the pain of the soul. The soft and soothing song sings "Into the arms of God, in." The pastor prayed in a soft and powerful voice: "God touches your heart and heals you", The people inside were crying while praying. In this environment that was especially suitable for releasing emotions, Shen Ai finally couldn't help crying, crying hysterically, and the emotions that had been suppressed in her heart for so many years exploded. Shin Ae's wailing was the worst cry I've ever seen in movies and in reality. At this time, the pastor walked over, put his hand on Shen Ai's head and said a prayer. Shin Ae quieted down. Since then, I have "entered the church" and testified everywhere that I was reborn and saved. I felt like I was in love with Jesus, and my heart was filled with the happiness of being loved. But in fact, she did not really understand the true meaning of Christianity at the time, and the so-called peace in her heart was probably just the relief after years of repressed emotions were finally released. For a woman who was seriously lacking in the love of her father and husband, God It's also very likely that it's just being treated as a fantasy love object, a perfect love object, and that's it. Sadly, in order to meet people's inner emotional needs, many churches have reduced faith to a kind of psychological massage to heal the soul, with excess emotion and insufficient truth. The emphasis on love ignores the justice of God and the aversion to sin. The doctrine that love takes away sin and righteousness. Although this superficial belief can provide some temporary spiritual comfort to the tired and suffering modern people and make people feel more comfortable, it cannot stand the test of real suffering at all. Neither can Shin Ae be allowed to forgive her son's killer.
Against such a background, Shin Ae and the murderer's understanding of faith and forgiveness are superficial and even wrong. It can be said that they all use faith as a tool, one is used to heal pain, the other is used to eliminate guilt, in exchange for inner peace. Shin-ae's real purpose in teaching the murderer she forgives for her son is to play a saint, or even a savior. Forgiving someone else is impossible if she doesn't realize she needs it and is forgiven. So she broke down when she found out that God had spared the criminals before her. And the murderer did not understand the seriousness of sin at all, and neglected the justice of God. Killing a person, no matter in the eyes of God, is an extremely terrible thing, but from the peaceful expression of the murderer like a Buddha statue, there is no truth to the horror of his crime. know. The director criticized the problem of the Korean church, but did not present real Christianity.
At the end of the film, Shin Ae's own hair that was cut off was blown by the wind into a corner scattered with debris, and the sun shone quietly, as if asking every audience whether they believed that there was God's good intentions in this sunlight? Do you believe in the existence and goodness of God?
View more about Secret Sunshine reviews
