The Way Home

This sweet and sentimental South Korean film--dedicated "to all the grandmothers of the world"--was a box office phenomenon akin to My Big Fat Greek Wedding in its native country (one dreads the possibility of an American remake). A debt-ridden big city woman who has lost her shop and must look for work deposits her seven-year-old son with her long-estranged 75-year-old mother, a mute peasant, who lives in a remote mountain village. A spoiled brat who rebels against the primitive conditions (there is no plumbing and no television), the boy treats the gnarled, stooped woman cruelly, calling her names, hiding her shoes, and refusing to help with chores. He spends his days playing his Game Boy until the batteries run out. But her love is unconditional. She showers the boy with nothing but kindness and tries her best to please him. At one point, she takes him to a restaurant meal and, with only money enough for one ticket, lets him ride the bus home, while she walks. The moment where he finally begins to appreciate her sacrifices has the same resonant impact of the Grinch's heart growing two sizes; but that may be too late for less patient viewers, who would have pushed this unsympathetic monster over a cliff by the second reel. With its simple story, told with a paucity of subtitles, however, this is one of those rare foreign films that is also easily accessible to older children. Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)