2 new movies to recommend

During the weekend, i managed to catch 2 movies that are currently showing in the cinemas.

The Orphanage

This movie produced by Guillermo del Toro, the guy who gave us movies such as Pan's Labyrinth and The devil's backbone. The movie is about a woman who returned to the orphanage that she used to be in before she was adopted by a family. She bought over the building, to change it into a residence cum orphanage for disabled children. Her son starts to play with imaginary friends in the house and upon chancing upon his drawings, realized that he has 6 imaginary friends, one of them has a bag over his head. This boy disappeared on the day that the new disabled children moved into the house and nobody has a clue to where he went to and who abducted him for almost a year. The woman and her husband are worried as the child has AIDS and thus needs his medication. A medium and a seance later, she decided to 'play' with the 6 children ghost, to rescue her son and to solve the mystery of why they're haunting the place and why her son was abducted.

This movie is a typical Guillermo del Toro movie, where there are no cheap scares and a strong storyline to hold up the movie. This is definitely different from the typical Hollywood horror films as there is almost no blood and no gore. The whole movie has not much noise to begin with and thus the audience is constantly wrapped in a sense of apprehension and suspense. This is the type of horror films that should be made more than the gorefest of Hollywood.


Secret Sunshine

This is a korean movie about a woman who brings her son to Miryang, the hometown of her deceased husband. She decided to set up home to live anew in Miryang, cutting all ties with her family and life in Seoul. She opened a piano school and starts to befriend the town people. Similar to The orphanage, her son was abducted and later killed when she couldn't pay the total sum for the ransom. Deeply depressed and heart-broken, she started going to church, to accept God and whatnot. She decided to 'follow God's command' and forgive the murderer of her son, who is serving his sentence in prison. During the meeting, the murderer told her that he also accepted God and that God had forgiven him. He is at peace and he prays for the wonders of God everyday. This pisses her off as she accused God of letting him off so easily while she suffers in silence. The next half and hour of so shows her defying God and spiraling into madness.

For her role, Jeon Do-Yeon won Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and she definitely deserved it. Great acting do not only come from her but also from the other actors in the movie. This is another movie that i will recommend. Go watch it. The acting from Jeon is enough.