My Brilliant Life

My Brilliant Life is a 2014 South Korean drama film starring Song Hye-kyo and Gang Dong-won. It was co-written and directed by E J-yong based on the 2011 novel My Palpitating Life by Kim Ae-ran. My Brilliant Life won the Third Place Audience Award at the 17th Udine Far East Film Festival in 2015. My Brilliant Life was released under CJ Entertainment in Korea on September 3, 2014. The film received official wide release in China on March 13, 2015. Plot Immature and clumsy Dae-soo and beautiful but foul-mouthed Mi-ra were both seventeen-year-old teenagers when Mi-ra became pregnant. As a result of familial rejection, Dae-soo decides to run away from home and care for his family on his own. Their son Ah-reum was born, but he was diagnosed with the extremely rare genetic disorder progeria, which makes its recipient age prematurely and rapidly. Years later, Ah-reum is sixteen, but his body is that of an eighty-year-old man. The family faces the fact that he may not live to see his 18th birthday. Sensing that he doesn't have much time left, Ah-reum writes a story about how his young parents fell in love and how he came to be, hoping to give it as a gift to them on his seventeenth birthday. At the same time, Dae-soo and Mi-ra struggle to raise money for Ah-reum's hospital expenses and accept the reality that their son will not be with them much longer. To cover costs, Dae-soo takes up work as a taxi-driver and Mi-ra works at a laundry. Dae-soo struggles to balance work and spending limited time with his son. Hearing the story of Ah-reum, a television crew searches out the family to make a documentary program about Ah-reum and his condition. After the documentary is screened, Ah-reum begins to receive emails from another child who is sick, a young girl whose messages comfort him and provide hope as he tries to recount the love story of his parents as his final gift to them. Cast Song Hye-kyo as Mi-ra Gang Dong-won as Dae-soo Jo Sung-mok as Ah-reum Cha Eun-woo as Healthy Ah-reum Baek Il-seob as Mr. Jang Heo Joon-seok as Seung-chan Chae Seo-jin as Lee Seo-ha Kim So-jin as Writer Kim Oh Hee-joon as Mi-ra's older brother Lee Sung-min as Family doctor (cameo) Kim Kap-soo as Dae-soo's father (cameo) Kim In-tae as Older Mr. Jang (cameo) Taetiseo as Dae-soo's favorite girl group (cameo)