MovieChat Forums > Milyang (2010) Discussion > Blatantly anti-Christian

Blatantly anti-Christian

posted 12 years ago by krachmacher
15 replies | jump to latest

There are so many negative Christian stereotypes portrayed in this movie, the worst being the hated child murderer that "finds God" in prison (and how unbelievable that the school teacher actually kills the boy after receiving the ransom money).

The movie would have been an honest approach to the subject of grief and faith if Shin-ae had already been a Christian before tragedy struck. Instead her conversion is built up only for it's inevitable failure.

Though Lee Chang-dong claims that Secret Sunshine is about people, and not Christianity,I disagree and think that that, even if unintentionally, he has made a discrediting film.

[–] noveltylibrary 12 years ago

disagree, and certainly not blatantly. and how do you know her conversion ultimately failed?

[–] ShellOilJunior 12 years ago

That's a good point. We don't know that she gave up entirely on Christianity. We do know, at least I think, that she used Christianity the wrong way. She used it as moral leverage over others and was hoping to do the same thing with the killer. It caught her off guard because she couldn't speak down to him.

cinemapedant.blogspot.com

[–] Carlx 11 years ago

The director stated that many Christians do not consider the film to be anti-Christian. What's more, many priests told their congregation to go watch this movie, and many discussed it in their sermons.

I'm not a connoisseur of Christianity whatsoever, but I'm aware that pain, grief is considered sacred. I've come across a quote by a Spanish priest and writer called Martín Descalzo, and I instantly related his words to this movie:

All pain is sacred, it belongs to the depths of soul through which we connect with God. Therefore, in the face of pain, the most important and fundamental thing is to remain silent. To keep company. But not to fritter words away. At least, not to say a single word if it's not completely heartfelt. In the face of pain, everything sounds false; especially what is already false. It's better to be with the one who suffers. To try to inwardly assume their pain as one's own. And to love them without words.

Jong Chan keeps Shin-ae's company all the way through her suffering, he barely talks about the ins and outs of her pain — if anything, he tries to keep her away from whatever may strenghten her grief. He is just there.

I guess it's not crazy to think that the director could have drawn a parallel between him and Mary, who silently kept Jesus' company all the way through the Via Crucis.

[–] draugwenL 11 years ago

So something is anti-Christian for:

A) Portraying a common real-life symptom of trauma, which is a spiritual crisis in the face of tragedy
B) Not having a character remain Christian at the end of it, which is also very common, especially considering the worldwide trend of more and more people becoming non-religious and/or atheist (though particularly I think people are just more comfortable admitting their true feelings, now that saying you're an atheist is less likely to get you killed now).
C) Portraying a very common real-life trope, which is born-again Christianity in prison. Because people view Christianity as a guide for morality for some reason (they must have never read the book it's based on) prisoners often convert or exaggerate their religiosity to play the sympathy card and get their time reduced.
D) Because some people think other themes in the move (oh, say like, the death of a child, mental illness, grief, trauma, motherhood, etc) are more important than Christianity

Let's see if you can get transfer any more of your persecution complex onto films.

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.

[–] WeGetIt 11 years ago

I felt it was anti-Christian because the Christians were portrayed as absulute morons. There wasn't one normal Christian in the film. They were shown as people without will or ability to think for themselves.

Even I was disgusted by the change in the main character after she converted. She became totaly Westernised. She simply forgot about her son and immersed herself in singing songs and clapping and repeating the same corny lines about God's love.

In the end she goes so far as to throw something at her Christian centers windows, cracking it, while people are inside praying for her.

The movie by the way was perfect up until the whole Christian-bashing crap. If it wasn't for that I'd give it a 10.

[–] pneurbies 10 years ago

Hi, lived in South Korea for 8 years, and the representation is spot on. It gets bad over there. People fall into the whole fellowship thing head over heels and proselytize like you wouldn't believe. Like in "Lady Vengeance" when she gets out of prison, there's the church group that she doesn't even talk to that picks her up, and she uses them for a ride because she knows that they live for "big-ticket conversions." I don't know what it is about us Koreans but when people get started with Christianity, it becomes all-consuming. I've seen those ladies handing out pamphlets and a guy on a bullhorn spouting off all day long on EVERY SINGLE street corner with banners behind them promoting an upcoming rally. It tends to get worse in the smaller towns like the one in the film, because they all know each other and they plot and scheme and look for the vulnerable lambs and they pounce. It's much different than it is in "Red State America." It has little perceivable impact on politics, it's more of a social club where everyone tries to out-"holier-than-thou" each other. Though the friendships are strong, I just question the medium.

It's not anti-Christian if it's true. And it's a powerful story device to see the desperate mother seek solace in the most readily perceivable way. So, those morons you saw are real people and much more numerous than you thought. And when you said she became Westernized when she converted, I would argue that she became a very Korean brand of Christian, because I never see people acting like that here, but I have heard that meek and mild tone of voice too many times to mistake it for anything other than uniquely Korean Christianity - I'm losing focus here, so I hope u get my message.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

[–] WeGetIt 10 years ago

Pneurbies, I have actually changed my views on this film. I now don't think it's anti-Christian. Everything you wrote I have since confirmed for my self.

On several occasions I have driven by a group of Korean Christians in Hollywood, right outside of Highland Highschool. They had these vertical poles with Korean writing on them and they were acting EXCATLY like the Christians in the film. That's when I realized that the director was just showing how Christianity is in Korea. I was completely wrong... at least about the part about making Christians look like morons - I still don't know what his intentions were. He was simply showing, as you said, a Korean brand of Christianity.

So I feel bad for assuming that the director simply wanted to make Christians look bad. From what I have seen in real life, the portrayal was spot on.

I'm surprised I never rated the film but I just gave it a 9/10. I really want to see this movie again because when I first saw it I couldn't believe how good it was. After every scene I was expecting the film to go down hill but it just kept getting better.

[–] cinesimonj 8 years ago

Very odd that you only got that from Korean christians though. Conservative American christians are far, far more moronic. And extremely dishonest - let alone secure in their 'faith'.

[–] g_monte 10 years ago

I don't think it portrays these Christian characters as "morons" but rather as people who don't know what to do or say in a situation such as this.

[–] MudgeMalog 9 years ago

My interpretation: The film depicts a woman desperately trying to alleviate the grief in her life. She turns to Christianity as a last hope, cure-all, quick fix. When it wasn't the easiest/fastest solution, she abandons and denounces it (human nature). Although the Christianity portion of the movie is memorable, it's a small part of the movie. I think if the filmmaker's aim was to make an anti-Christian movie, he would have portrayed the Christians as greedy hypocrites. But all the Christians in the movie seemed to be genuine. I think this is just a case of religion not working out for an individual and nothing more.

You think I'm crazy? Well perhaps we're all a little crazy. I know I am.
-Hugo

[–] subratjain1 9 years ago

I blatantly disagree to what you said. I agree religion played an important part in the plot build up but it was never criticized or shown in a bad manner. The film focuses only and only on the plight of the female lead and how she deals with it. The people shown were religious but none of them were shown to be fanatics. Moreover they seemed pretty nice to me as they were their for each other whenever needed. No hate speeches or anything of such taste were depicted in the film.

Its a matter of personal judgement and mental state how one interprets religion. And the same is depicted superbly.

[–] mariostsam 9 years ago

myself felt sick from christian perspective of the film. I hate the sick christian myopic perception of Cosmos specially from a christian minister like the author of this psycopatologic movie. So this film takes 1 star not because is against christians but because is a sick pro-christian film.

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