The Way Home

Director : Lee Jeong-hyang

Writer : Lee Jeong-hyang

Stars : Kim Eul-boon, Yu Seung-ho

Rating : 4 Stars

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The New York Times has described this 2002 film as “a charming fable”, and indeed The Way Home (Jibeuro) is laden with lessons not so unlike Aesop’s tales. It is a story of a septuagenarian and her spoiled 7-year-old grandson Sang-woo, the latter dropped off to his grandmother’s care so that his mother (a single parent) can seek employment in the city. Sang-woo’s dislike of the situation is understandable. Born and raised in the city, he hates the tedious circumstances and since it’s his first time to meet her it is difficult for him to understand, much less appreciate, his illiterate and deaf-mute grandmother.

A serene old lady who has lived her whole in the rural outskirts of the country and a sharp-tongued city kid is an interesting dichotomy. Sang-woo is used to fast food (Spam and KFC) and modern technology (video games) while his grandmother relies on antiquated stove, chamber pot and the small comforts her little shack houses . From this premise you should expect some sort of a clash, but you’d be pleasantly surprised that the clashes between these two different backgrounds are neither filled with hysterics nor histrionics as most films nowadays tend to highlight.

The fact that only the character of Sang-woo is played by a professional actor makes the film more believable, with no artificial and overplayed scenes. Kim Eul-boon, the grandmother, is au naturel. Her kind smile on her wrinkled face and her gnarled hands doing chores speak her love for her grandchild.

The plot has no convoluted twists and turns. It is as beautiful and simple as the picturesque South Korean countryside, the locale of the film. Its message is resoundingly clear and that is humility, patience, and love act as attrition to such negative values as emotional apathy and intolerance. But important also is the latent issue revealed by the film – the strain of modern living on family and morality. Undeniably, there is that lure of modern culture and its newfangled conveniences – fast food, smart gadgets and other tangible things. But, alas, when you grab the lure there’s bound to be repercussions: single parenthood, loss of values, and severance of familial ties and affection.

No doubt about it, this movie is a tearjerker. Who would not shed a tear when a stooped elderly woman treks a hill to provide food and comfort to a disrespectful grandson? Who would not be moved by a scene of the grandmother spending her meager earnings by selling vegetables to buy her unappreciative grandson a pair of shoes? But the film has its share of funny moments too and the catharsis is so heartfelt that it leaves you breathless for a long while. Writer-director Lee Jeong-Hyang, being a woman herself, understands the depth and infinite sacrifice of maternal love and that is why The Way Home comes across as an utterly credible and poignant story.