Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Khemaluck Deeprawat I watched this film with my mom and she was so drawn in. She and the main character comes from the same generation. I think that while watching this movie, my mom and people her age understand a lot more than I know how it feels to live a hard life and to build up your family from nothing. Although my mom isn't a Korean, she can relates to those days when the oldest child of the family have to sacrifice happiness in his or her life for the younger ones. I think this is a film with a big heart and I'm glad that it was created because younger people can learn to appreciate and understand their parents or grandparents more. It is beautifully filmed, well-acted, and contain a story that is somehow feel "real" to me although many scenes are too intentionally sentimental. It makes you feel what is like to be someone who live in that generation. It makes you appreciate and understand older people in your family much more. The story goes through a whole life of a person but I don't feel that it's too long. There are moments of tears and moments of laughter, you can both cry and smile while watching it. I highly recommend this film for both the older and the younger generation in your family.

Rashed Fahad as an grown man , i have never cried on a film but this film MAKE ME , because its shows how hard to be ( A REAL MAN ) and how hard to realized it the other peopleto be specific i cried on the last scenes and BELIEVE ME its not a SHAME when u know the pain and u felt it and if u didn't watch the movie yet , watch it and u may cry too .. my review , that i enjoyed it , i love it and in my opinion the less mistakes in a movie the more Success its made , and i mean by MISTAKE ' everything 'and this movie , they didn't make any obvious mistakes10\10 , 100\100 , 5 STAR \ 5

MartinHafer This film begins in the present time and is about a crotchety old man, Duk-Soo. Then, suddenly the film jumps back to 1950 when his family found themselves in the middle of a war zone. His father, mother and three siblings all scrambled to climb aboard a US ship for safety in the South. But as Duk-Soo (probably only about 8 years old at the time) climbed up the rope ladder with his sister on his back, the tiny girl fell off...and you assume she's drowned. The father climbs off the ship to look for her and before going, he tells Duk-Soo he's the man of the family until he returns. But it's total chaos there and the father never returns. As the years pass, Duk-Soo takes his responsibility to care for his family EXTREMELY seriously, working long, long hours and often working abroad in dangerous places...all to put his younger brother through college and to care for his mother and extremely ungrateful sister. Eventually, near the end of the film, after working a lifetime to support his family, there is a break when a Korean TV program works to reunite families torn apart by the war...even though decades have passed.The film is an incredibly moving experience--especially the last hour or so. It's all about the burden that Duk-Soo carried and how responsible and decent he is...and how so often the family and extended family cannot understand his work ethic. It's a wonderful microcosm of the Korean experience of the last 65 years--as Duk- Soo's story is one which undoubtedly resonates with many elderly Koreans today. Exquisitely made and well worth seeing.

Jack Stars Ode to My Father was an interesting Korean movie. When a movie has a good enough story and plot behind it, the peripheral aspects that might not be that great such as acting, subtitles, or graphic effects can be forgiven in spite of their deficiencies. This movie contained some of those qualities. Since it was in Korean the majority of it had to be read with subtitles save the parts of dialogue from American G.I.'s. However the movie draws you in that that was not a hindrance as it was easy to forget that you were even reading what was being said.Ode to My Father is sort of Forrest Gump (1994) meets a Korean drama. We see the story focus on Duk-soo's (Jeong-min Hwang) life from the time he was a young boy fleeing Korea during the Korean War, along with aspects of his life throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's all the way to the present when he is an old man. This movie seems to use Duk-soo's reality as a representation of the many struggles and hardships of life that a lot of Koreans went through following the Korean War. Its sub-point of intent may have been to point out these struggles to the young Korean generation of today in order that they would have some realization with what their grandparents sacrificed so that they may have the life they do today.One thing this movie has is a lot of heart and it is clearly portrayed by the actors, many times in an over-the-top manner. It is definitely melodramatic. But that may have been the directors intent to try to get the point across for how hard this guy's life was. There is one scene where everyone on screen is crying and wailing away and a woman says, "I miss my mommy" to the point it wasn't coming across as to stir empathetic emotions rather it was comical and unbelievable, unfortunately. There were some comic relief moments throughout, but even those scenes were cheesy and accompanied with what sounded like clown music. One actress American audiences may recognize is Yunjin Kim who played Sun Kwan on the series LOST (2004). She was probably the best actor in the movie while the other main actors did a decent job; however there were some bit-part actors that were not believable at all as their acting seemed on par with a bad high school play. The special effects were pretty good and cinematography not bad. Though there were some silly moments throughout the film these can be overlooked when focusing on the story. Boredom or tiredness never set in while watching this as it held my interest the whole time.It is a movie worth checking out. Koreans for sure will relate better to it than some foreigners, but it does offer an insight into Korean life of yore for the non-native Korean. I give it 6 out of 10 stars as it was little better than your average movie.