South Korea Synopsis
밀양
Shin-ae moves to her recently late husband’s hometown. Despite her efforts to settle in this unfamiliar and too-normal place, she finds that she can’t fit in. After a sudden tragedy, Shin-ae turns to Christianity to relieve her pain, but when even this is not permitted, she wages a war against God.
Audience Engagement
181 audience reviews — more than 91% of South Korea films in our index.
Review volume (91th percentile) outruns trending popularity (73th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Secret Sunshine. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Cinema Service
The 2006–2008 South Korea Window
Secret Sunshine holds position #19 of 114 South Korea films in the 2006–2008 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s South Korea Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in South Korea, 321 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Secret Sunshine premiered alongside 30 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 23m runtime, production spent $20K per minute on screen and earned $81K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 30 other South Korea films in 2007.
The 285th South Korea title from South Korea we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our South Korea catalog contains 1,397 titles in total (931 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Secret Sunshine, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- faith · 4
- migration · 3
- move · 1
- miryang · 1
- suicide attempt · 22
- mother · 14
- child kidnapping · 11
- church · 6
- based on novel or book · 288
- loss of loved one · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #575 of 1,397 South Korea films indexed here (59th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.2 points above the South Korea average of 6.9/10.
Among South Korea Drama productions specifically: #399 of 868 (top 46%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | South Korea |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Korean |
| Production Companies | Cinema Service, Pinehouse Film, CJ Entertainment |
| Runtime | 2h 23m |
| Release Date | May 17, 2007 |
| IMDb | tt0817225 |