Secret Sunshine

JEON DO-YEON as Lee Shin-ae
Jeon was born in 1973 and began her career as a TV star before applying her talents to the silver screen. The box office success of The Contact in 1997 launched her as a major presence in Korean cinema. Jeon’s follow-up roles were well selected and diverse and showed off her range. These include the strong career woman committing adultery in Happy End, the chaste woman who loses her love, her virginity and her dignity to a wager in Untold Scandal, and the coffee shop girl with AIDS in You Are My Sunshine, together earning her a place among the most influential and popular actresses in Korea.

In Miryang / Secret Sunshine she plays Lee Shin-ae, a woman who relocates to Miryang with her son after losing her husband. But this attempt at a new start only throws her life into a whirlpool of desperation.

Selected Filmography
The Contact (d: JANG Yoon-hyun/1997)
Organ In My Heart (d: LEE Young-jae/1998)
The Promise (d: KIM Yoo-jin/1998)
Happy End (d: JUNG Ji-woo/1999)
I Wish I Had A Wife (d: PARK Heung-shik/2000)
No Blood No Tears (d: RYU Seung-hwan/2002)
Untold Scandal (d: LEE Jae-yong/2003)
My Mother, The Mermaid (d: PARK Heung-shik/2004)
You Are My Sunshine (d: PARK Jin-pyo/2005)

SONG KANG-HO as Kim Jong-chan
Born in 1967, Song began his career as stage actor with one of Korea’s most prestigious theater groups: Yeonwoo Moodae. His stage performances earned him the role as a ruthless gangster in Lee Chang-dong’s feature debut film, Green Fish, and launched a career as a serious screen actor of great versatility. Starring in a successful series of popular and critically acclaimed films has made him arguably the most admired – not to mention powerful ¬– male film presence in Korea.
Publisher Norman Warne was the great love of Beatrix Potter’s young life. For Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, both the character and the real life story, were unknown when Renée Zellweger first talked to him about being in the film, MISS POTTER.

In Miryang / Secret Sunshine, Song plays Kim Jong-chan, a worldly car repair shop owner who diligently looks after a woman he has feelings for as she is driven into desperation.

Selected Filmography
Green Fish (d: Lee Chang-dong/1997)
No. 3 (d: Song Neung-han/1997)
The Quiet Family (d: Kim Jee-woon/1998)
Shiri (d: Kang Jae-kyu/1999)
The Foul King (d: Kim Jee-woon/2000)
JSA: Joint Security Area (d: Park Chan-wook/2000)
YMCA Baseball Team (d: Kim Hyeon-suk/2002)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (d: Park Chan-wook/2002)
Memories Of Murder (d: Bong Joon-ho/2003)
Antarctic Journal (d: Im Pil-sung/2004)
The President’s Barber (d: Lim Charn-sang/2004)
The Host (d: Bong Joon-ho/2006)

About Director LEE Chang-dong
Born in 1954 in Taegu, Korea, Lee Chang-dong graduated from Kyungbuk University where he majored in Korean Language and Literature. He began a career as a novelist and high school teacher, but in 1993 he joined acclaimed social filmmaker Park Kwang-su’s production of the film To The Starry Island as scriptwriter and assistant director – at friend and filmmaker Park’s encouragement. He joined forces with Park once again as scriptwriter on A Single Spark in 1995.

He made his debut as a feature film director with Green Fish, a “one of a kind” Korean film noir that took the Korean public by surprise with its realistic portrayal of gangsters.

If Green Fish was an exploration of genre conventions and the real world, he continued his exploration of life and the cinema with Peppermint Candy, which experiments with the concept of going back in time, and Oasis, which searches for the meaning of true love. It was with these latter two films that he bested the critical and popular success he received for Green Fish, achieving both domestic and international acclaim and accolades. Oasis earned Lee and lead actress Moon So-ri awards for best director and best actress at the Venice Film Festival, as well as a Golden Lion nomination.

In 2002, he was appointed as Minister of Culture and Tourism. Upon being relieved from this official position in 2004, he founded his own production company, Pine House Film, and is currently directing his fourth feature, produced under Pine House.

Lee also teaches film directing and screenwriting at the Korean National University of Arts.