Ode To My Father
Yoon Je Kyoon
The story: Yoon Deok Soo (Hwang Jung Min) has had a hard life. Uprooted from home because of the Korean War (1950-1953), he had to shoulder the burden of being the man of the family after getting separated from his father and younger sister.
To make more money, he signs up to be a miner in Germany in the 1960s and subsequently works as a technician in Vietnam in the 1970s during the Vietnam War. In Germany, he meets Young Ja (Kim Yun Jin), a nurse he later marries.

In 1983, major broadcast stations in South Korea aired programmes about the reunion of families torn apart during the Korean War.
A nation was transfixed as heartrending stories played out on the small screen.
Equally moving was the sight of posters and signs blanketing the area in front of the National Assembly Building in Seoul as thousands of people came from all over South Korea, clinging desperately to the hope of finding their loved ones.
These images are at the heart of Ode To My Father, a drama that delves into the shadow that the war casts on the Korean psyche.
In South Korea, the film has clearly tapped into a pain that is deeply rooted – it is the second highest grossing film with 14.2 million admissions.
Director Yoon Je Kyoon, whose credits include the comedy Sex Is Zero (2002) and the tidal wave disaster flick Haeundae (2009), made the movie as a personal tribute to his father. The two protagonists are named after his parents.
While the film sometimes borders on melodrama, it still manages to be a powerfully effective tearjerker. I have not cried this much at a movie since Feng Xiaogang’s earthquake drama Aftershock (2010).
Hwang Jung Min’s moving performance is key. An award-winning actor in films such as tragic romance You Are My Sunshine and violent crime thriller A Bittersweet Life (2005), he is utterly believable here as Yoon Deok Soo, a decent and dogged Korean everyman thrust into the tide of history.
Deok Soo toils in mines in Germany and then risks life and limb in war-torn Vietnam, ever mindful of his duty to his family.
Containing shades of Forrest Gump (1994), his journey through life mirrors a nation’s development even as a tragic past haunts and galvanises him.
There are chance encounters with major figures in Korean society, such as the founder of Hyundai Group, Mr Chung Ju Yung; a romance with Young Ja (Kim Yun Jin from television’s sci-fi mystery Lost), which gives him strength; and humour courtesy of funnyman Oh Dal Su (Miracle In Cell No. 7, 2013) as Deok Soo’s sidekick and best friend.
In the end, the film is an ode, not just to a father, but to an indomitable generation who survived war and then fought hard to rebuild their lives.
(ST)