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Question about the last scene


In the last scene she is seen cutting here hair. The hair falls and is blown by the wind. The camera pans in that direction and stops to focus on something in her yard. I couldn't understand the significance of the scene. What was it focusing on exactly?

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The title itself: Secret Sunshine! It was focusing on the sunlight, since most of that yard was in the shade if I remember correctly. It kind of represents hope for her I guess. She has gone through a lot of things and she still hasn't recovered and will not recover soon, but there's still hope, as that secret sunchine exists among the shade.

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thanks.. that seems appropriate and makes sense..

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Here is another interpretation (from the Criterion Collection essay: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1964-secret-sunshine-a-cinema-of-lucidity):

Lee periodically fills the CinemaScope frame of Secret Sunshine with a view of the sky—the opening shot is a brilliant patch of blue as seen through a windshield—and Shin-ae has a habit of gazing heavenward, as if looking for explanations, meaning, a reason to go on. But the film ends with the camera trained on a humble patch of earth, illuminated by sunlight. It’s no wonder a rationalist would conclude a spiritual journey this way. Shin-ae has spent much of the movie agonizing over the invisible and the unfathomable. Lee ends with a reminder of what we do see and know, and it starts with the ground beneath our feet.

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From nytimes.com/2007/09/30/movies/30lim.html

“Shin-ae is always looking up and never at the ground,” Mr. Lee said, pointing out a recurring motif. The film opens with a wide shot of the sky and concludes with the camera trained on a patch of earth. “I wanted to show that the meaning of life is not far from where we are,” he said. “It’s not up there. It’s here, in our actual life.”

I couldn't see what Lee was doing and I can't imagine many did either. It wasn't very hard to understand the symbolism of Shin-ae cutting her own hair but the last shot was a mistake, imo, with Lee doing a disservice to his film. I suppose the issue could be a cultural one, with Koreans grasping that last shot without a problem, but I tend to doubt that.

Good film, imo, but too slow for its length and a last shot that was unnecessarily perplexing. Other, clearer ways were available for Lee to make his point.

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