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Star heats Korea's "Secret Sunshine" at Cannes
Thu May 24, 2007 11:23AM EDT
By James Mackenzie
CANNES, France (Reuters) - A powerful performance by South Korean star Jeon Do-yeon in "Secret Sunshine" is one of a striking array of notable female roles at this year's Cannes film festival.
"Secret Sunshine", by director Lee Chang-dong tells the story of the newly widowed Shin-ae, who leaves Seoul with her little son to start a new life as a piano teacher in her late husband's home town of Miryang.
Slightly out of place in the everyday provincial community, Shin-ae does her best to fit in with her inquisitive neighbors and a friendly but oppressive mechanic played by Song Kang-ho, one of Korea's biggest stars.
The film follows the sweet and stoical Shin-ae as her life is suddenly torn apart and Jeon gives an unsparing portrayal of the young mother's attempts to deal with overwhelming despair and the insensitivity of both townspeople and her own family.
One of the most popular actresses in Korea, who first came to fame in the 1997 film "The Contact", Jeon said she had often felt uncertain about the part but was greatly helped by Lee, one of his country's leading directors and an ex-culture minister.
"I couldn't really prepare the role because there were feelings that I've never had and I couldn't even imagine," she told reporters.
Her moving performance stood out even in a festival that has seen a string of outstanding female roles both in the main line-up or in films outside competition like "A Mighty Heart" where Angelina Jolie plays the wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl.
Veteran Russian actress Galina Vishnevskaya in the Chechen war drama "Alexandra", Ukrainian debutante Ekateryna Rak as the struggling immigrant Olga in "Import/Export" or South Korea's Zia in "Breath" have all attracted strong praise
Despite her occasional doubts, Jeon said the film had stretched her as an actor.
"This movie was exhausting, both emotionally and physically but it did give me the chance to surpass myself. I know I've improved, I can see that," she said in the production notes.
As the bumbling mechanic Jong-chan, Song, star of the 2006 hit "The Host", plays a supporting role, following the suffering Shin-ae about with dog-like devotion.
But his flawed everyman character provides an effective foil to the emotional drama at the film's heart.
"Secret Sunshine" has attracted some controversy because of its treatment of evangelical Christians, who initially convert the traumatized Shin-ae although Lee said he had tried to make a broadly human story rather than a film about religion.
He said his decision to base the film around a woman reflected the broad theme of the film.
"What I wanted to show in this film was human suffering and how people deal with this pain, how they find hope again and I thought a female character could get closer to the nature of suffering," he said.
source http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSL2465035820070524 |
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发表于 2007-5-22 08:19
发表于 2007-5-22 13:32
