Fridae

If Rule #1 had not debuted this week, we would have named Secret Sunshine as the must-watch of the week. The extraordinary Korean drama about grief and mourning is one of the most radiantly original films we have seen in a long time. Nominated for the Golden Palm (Best Picture) at last year's Cannes Film Festival, we strongly recommend this to connoisseurs.

Jeon Do-Yeon plays a widow who, after the death of her husband, moves to small town with her young son to begin a new life. But tragedy strikes when the boy goes missing. The young mother plunges into the darkest, most desperate days of her life. She turns to a man (Song Kang-Ho) and Christianity for help, but when those fail, she losses all sense of direction...

Do-Yeon nabbed several Best Actress trophies � including the one at Cannes � for her searing portrayal of a grieving woman, angry with life for dealing her such a devastating set of cards. It is her fearless and utterly genuine performance that keeps your eyes glued to the screen for the entire length of this 2-hour-20-min film.

Directed by legendary Korean helmer Lee Chang Dong, Secret Sunshine is a complex movie that goes in directions few movies have headed before. It is structurally so unusual that one is left to reflect on how the story resembles life in messy, confusing and unpredictable state.

Genuine, moving and unmissable.