Sunny (DVD) (Taiwan Version) DVD Region 3

At first glance, Sunny might feel like a very commercial film on paper, apparently mixing two killer applications like the war in Vietnam and melodrama. But it is neither a film about war per se, nor a melodrama. It's actually the opposite, as Sunny is not only a rather streamlined mix of all the themes Lee has shown through his past works, but also the most "masculine" of his films. Sure, a strong female character leads the film, and everything gravitates around her, both in a narrative and cinematic way. But Soon-Yi and Sunny are just an ideal of a woman, something Lee uses to show men's own mea culpa, and the desire to understand their women a little better. I really liked Lee's comments about his intentions through this film of "discovering women." You might remember he was always accused of rarely featuring women in his films, because he admittedly didn't understand much about them in the first place. Making a film where a woman plays such a pivotal role is a sign Lee, who commented on many occasions he's more interested in exploring the unknown, is trying to approach the other sex through cinema in a much more direct way. But that doesn't really mean Sunny is a realistic portrayal of a female during 1970s Korea, nor that many of her choices make sense in that kind of context. It's more of an emotional vehicle for men to reflect on their misdeeds, a mea culpa running at 24 frames per second. And if you think about the Vietnam war, then mea culpa is a pretty important word. Sure, we had the White Badge of the world, but that was more a personal story starting from the war background, just like Jang Sun-Woo decided to focus on the personal wounds left by the Gwangju Massacre through his masterful A Petal. We need to jump all the way to 2004 and Gong Su-Chan's R-Point to find anything remotely "progressive" about Korea's involvement in the Vietnam War, but again it's just a tangential theme.

The guilt trip many Koreans Lee's age are going through about Vietnam would be a hot topic, but it's still a little early to be completely honest about it on the big screen. What Lee probably referred to, when he pointed the finger at Hollywood's Vietnam War flicks, is that those were superficial guilt trips masquerading as indictments of the war, trying to give a certain emotional spin to the events, but always from a rather ethnocentric, quasi-imperialist way. What Lee does here is certainly showing things from an Asian point of view, but more than pointing fingers in an historical sense, it all goes back to his initial intentions. The fact Sunny and the band end up spending time with the Viet Cong, the fact they, too, are portrayed as real people, and for once it's the Americans that get the short end of the stick is even a little refreshing. What I really liked, though, is that human touch added to it all, and the fact Lee doesn't really fool himself. That "what is you Koreans' version of peace, coming here and making money?" scene is quite a brilliant example. It's politics and it will be slightly controversial in the west, sure, but it's done in a really honest way by Lee, unlike the flag-waving slant you'd get in a Kang Woo-Suk "offensive."

It's as if the mother complex of Lee's past films was finding its sublimation here, as Sunny becomes mother, saint and - possibly - whore all rolled into one. Those could have seemed like obsolete dichotomies in other films, something you'd rather find in the hostess flicks of the 70s. But seen here, it's a rather different story. Lee called seeing Soo Ae half naked dancing on stage "sublimity" more than anything having to do with sex or gender. And that's really the key to understand this film. There's a scene in the middle which will lose many viewers, particularly those unfamiliar with Lee's previous works. It's very subtly shot, extremely well acted (by Soo Ae, at least), and never really gives you any explicit incipit of what might happen, but it's going to drive feminist types batty, thinking this is exactly "that type of film." That is, something objectifying women, painting them as some sort of distant divinity, and pounding on the criticism of just about every male in the film just as a counterpoint.

What you'll lose if you take that line of thought from that point, though, is that there's something truly honest about the way the whole thing is told. You never can explain why on earth Sunny would go all the way to Vietnam for that man, but then again you can't explain things like affection and attachment, even if it's separated by layers of "tough love," the social fabric and customs of the time, and so on. As the search goes on, intertwined with Sang-Gil's descent into the horrors of war, it becomes a sort of philosophical take on history from the female perspective. It's not easy to explain, particularly as those elements will not find the same "punch" in the west, which has different cultural colors about gender roles. But what you're getting here is a sort of moral play about the regret of men filtered through their biggest mistake (war), and a "what if history was written by women" slant coloring it all. The balance changes, priorities transform… it all feels familiar, but strangely fresh.

I do understand talking about the film in those terms sets up a kind of minefield, and it's probably the reason why this film was loved by men 30s and over, and even hated by many younger females, who usually dominate box office demographics. It's not easy to filter out the iconoclastic portrayal and get to the point, exactly because the history of Korean cinema has been littered with so many "mines" regarding the portrayal of women, you tend to misunderstand at every angle. What really sets apart Sunny, what allows to go beyond some icon or ideal of woman on a pedestal is her mother-like strength and adaptability. Sure, she's a glorified narrative device before she can ever become a person at the end of the day, but it all somehow works, particularly in that perfect finale, one of the best final 10 minutes you'll see this year. When I think of Sunny, it's as if Lee Moon-Shik's mother from Once Upon a Time in the Battlefield went all the way to the Hwangsan Plain in the middle of war to find her son, knock some sense into him, and bring him back home, whatever the other warlords were thinking. It's not the kind of enlightenment Lee probably hoped (it's a very "male" film), but I think it's quite the evolution, as being honest about oneself is the first step on the road to enlightenment.

Outside of those themes, the strong storytelling and the message, what really stands out about Sunny is the production itself. I've been impressed in the past by particular scenes shot by Lee, but they're generally of the festival-like atmosphere type, drenched with smell of real people and tons of energy. You get those here as well, particularly when Sunny sings in front of the Korean troops. But even more impressive is how his mise en scene and sense of spectacle improved. There's only a few battle scenes here, and they're mostly tangential, but it's all tremendously well shot and makes a great impact. Shot in Thailand for a meager 3 billion won, the scale and tempo of those scenes adds to the experience immensely. This is certainly a "director's" film, but the acting is very strong, particularly the leading trio of Soo Ae, Jung Jin-Young and Eom Tae-Woong. They're not towering performances, but there's a certain panache and gusto to all three that's a joy to watch, particularly Eom, who does great things with the relatively short time he's given, and Jung Jin-Young's sparks of energy. Praising Soo Ae would feel kind of obvious, as she's like Venus to entire films' moons. It is clearly her best performance to date, and I'm starting to see the kind of maturity that could bring her into new, exciting territories. And... she still looks a whole lot like a young Jung Yoon-Hee - not the TV starlet, the 70s movie star - which is never a bad thing.

Released this summer right before the Olympics, as Kim Ji-Woon's The Good, The Bad, The Weird was doing monster business, Sunny is not the kind of bombastic and insane fun the kimchi western will give you. It's a quieter, darker, in many ways more bittersweet work. But I think, in the long run, the narrative elements and strong message of Lee's film is going to last much longer than those Manchurian escapades. Sunny is not a masterpiece, but it just might be Lee's best film yet. It has the kind of exquisitely low-key opening just like you'd expect, but also what's probably the best second half of the year. I don't even want to call it great, because that would mean I'd probably forget it in a couple of years. This is more like going back to the Bae Chang-Ho of yore: simple, tremendously well told, and always leaving you with a smile on your face, and even a few tears. How do you call that, glorious?

by X - Twitchfilm.net