Jeon do-yeong in Secret Sunshine
Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE:
"What is it about Korean auteurs that have critics salivating and distributors running for the exits? Last year, Hong Sang-soo's Woman on the Beach topped indieWIRE's best undistributed films list for 2007. This year, Hong compatriot Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine was far-and-way the winner of the honor. Thirty-four of the 106 critics surveyed in the 2007 indieWIRE Critics' Poll put the film on their list as one of the best undistributed films of the year. But, of course, it's an accolade that cuts both ways: Call it a back-handed compliment, as Caveh Zahedi once did upon receiving his award for 'Best Film Not Playing at Theater Near You,' or a paean for the sorry state of art-house film distribution."
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Secret Sunshine, about a young widow (played by Cannes Film Festival winner Jeon do-yeong, above) who suffers a major tragedy after moving to a small town, was recently screened at the AFI FEST 2007 in Los Angeles. (Unfortunately, I missed it.) The film is South Korea's submission for this year's best foreign-language film Oscar.
See below the results of indieWIRE's poll of the Ten Best Undistributed Films of 2007 in the United States:
- Secret Sunshine, directed by Lee Chang-dong (34 votes)
- Useless, directed by Jia Zhang-ke (20 votes)
- The Romance of Astree and Celadon, directed by Eric Rohmer and In the City of Sylvia, directed by Jose Luis Guerin (14 votes)
- Profit motive and the whispering wind, directed by John Gianvito and The Man from London, directed by Bela Tarr (11 votes)
- La France, directed by Serge Bozon (9 votes)
- You, the Living, directed by Roy Andersson (8 votes)
- Frownland, directed by Ronald Bronstein and Go Go Tales, directed by Abel Ferrara (7 votes)
- Battle for Haditha, directed by Nick Broomfield (6 votes)