[2] The screenplay based on the short fiction "The Abject" by Lee Cheong-jun that focuses on a woman as she wrestles with the questions of grief, madness and faith.

The local mechanic in Miryang, Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho), fixes her car and assists Shin-ae as she opens her piano school and attempts to purchase land to build a house on.

She receives a phone call (implied to be from Jun's kidnapper) and draws all of the money from her bank account to pay as ransom.

Shin-ae's church friends throw her a birthday party, during which she states that she will visit Park Do-seop, now in prison, to forgive him.

One day, Shin-ae steals a CD of a song called "Lies" from a store and blasts it on a loudspeaker where a group has gathered to thank God.

Later that night, she receives a phone call, which she claims to Jong-chan to have been from the kidnapper; he dismisses the idea but tells her to calm down and arranges a dinner date for the next day.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Plumbing the depths of tragedy without succumbing to melodrama, Chang-dong Lee's Secret Sunshine is a grueling, albeit moving, piece of beautifully acted cinema.

The experience of watching [Chang-dong's] films is not always pleasant... yet his quiet and exacting humaneness infuses even the most dreadful moments with an intimation of grace.

Club, called it "a frequently beautiful film with a cold, dark heart" and praised Do-yeon's "powerful performance".

[14] Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice wrote that "the red-eyed Jeon, landing a Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 and unforgettable as well in The Housemaid, goes to hell and back.

"[15] In 2019, director Hirokazu Kore-eda named it as the best film of the 21st century, praising Lee's "deep insight into human nature".