DLAznMovies.com: Sunny

a.k.a You are in a far away nation.

Genre: Romance, Drama
Starring: Soo-ae, Jung Jin-young, Jeong Kyeong-ho, Uhm Tae-woong, Ju Jin-mo, Sin Hyeon-tak
Release year: 2008
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English

SYNOPSIS:
Old-fashioned Soon-yi marries into a family in the country without love. But when her husband abandons her by enlisting into the Vietnam war, she wants to show that she is capable of loving him. She uses her vocal talent to join a band heading there and sings for the restless soldiers in hopes of meeting her husband while on tour

RATING: 8/10
USER RATING:

REVIEW:
" 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. That is, festival-like atmosphere, 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 (ahh… of all planets now, why does Venus have to mess up perfectly fine puns?). 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? "

Source: Twitch

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