Just watched the Korean DVD of Lee Chang-dong's SECRET SUNSHINE. Although the disc supposedly contains an English subtitle option, the English subtitles are total nonsense, usually being nothing more than seemingly random collections of English words, of no help whatsoever in enabling the non-Korean speaker to follow the film's dialogue or plot.

They were fine on the print I saw at the NY Film Festival last fall. You may have to wait for it to resurface on R1 DVD.

I've watched the Korean DVD, and don't recall this problem. Is it possible that you bought some sort of bootleg version? The legit Korean DVD release is a _very_ elaborate package:

http://i3.yesasia.com/assets/GalleryImage/...77889_30_01.jpg

A new, less deluxe version is due outr later this month, it should look like this:

http://i3.yesasia.com/assets/03/001/l_p1010000103.jpg

Hmmm. Possibly. It's on the Art Service label. There are no extras. I ordered it from Amazon. If you go onto Amazon and do a search for SECRET SUNSINE, the first thing that comes up is "SECRET SUNSHINE (Standard Edition) DVD". That's the one I have.

I don't think the real Art Service DVD has Chinese subtitles -- nor do I see any sign that they issued a "standard version" of the film on DVD.

Since all the text on the packaging is in Korean (aside from the title), I can't actually confirm that the label which released this disc is called Art Service. But the disc does have Chinese subtitles (which may not be any more useful than the English ones).

Agreed, it looks very sketchy. Besides what Mike pointed out: R0? Amazon private seller (exclusive) ?

It looks like a variation on the Singapore version on eBay with 5 sets of subs! :unsure:

The packaging actually claims "Region 3", though the disc is indeed Region 0.