Award Winning:
- Best Film : Grand Bell Award, South Korea
- Winner : Young Artist Award
- Best youn actor in an international film
- Best Film : Baek Sang Film
Special Features:
The Way Home is a touching story about a spoiled city boy, Sang Woo, whose single mom falls on hard times. The mom has no choice but to ship the boy off to the rural mountain town where his grandma lives. The grandmother is a hunchback lady with serious osteoporosis from bending over low stoves all her life. She’s also mute and illiterate.Despite the physical setbacks, she works diligently without complaining. Her character is so cute, you fall in love with her right away.
At first, the SangWoo treats his grandma with disrespect and apathy. He assumes she’s a country bumpkin because she’s unfamiliar with the trappings of the modern world.(How could she possible not know what Kentucky Fried chicken is??!!)He tries to keep himself occupied with the things he brought with him from the city: his rollerblades, his toys, his Coca Cola and his tins of Spam. However, after seeing all the sacrafices the gentle old woman makes for him, he soon learns some important lessons about love, kindness, selflessness and humility.
A long way home has a purposefully slow pace to mimick the slow pace of life in the countryside. In the beginning you wonder if anything is going to happen in the movie, but profound moments come out of very simple events. In addition, the striking scenery and the beautiful cinematography makes the movie a delight to watch.
The most remarkable thing about this movie is Eul-boon Kim, the woman who plays the grandmother. She had never even seen a movie before acting in this one! The director Jeong-hyang Lee found her during an extensive talent search among real rural village people. Bring some tissues if you watch this movie (It's a tearjerker!) and don’t forget to call your grandma afterwards to tell her you love her.
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