Ode to My Father (2014)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Great Film overall

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film is the story of a guy born right before Korea war in 1950s and grew up and struggled in the country. The situation around him is harsh and cruel due to the drastically changing world affair. However he lives his life with lots of small but invaluable moments with his beloved family and friends. I was deeply touched by how strongly he is living everyday life. The beauty of connection of family is also impressive and moving.

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

I've been reading reviews of this film on Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere by American critics, and while I agree with some of the criticisms (overly melodramatic, mediocre aging makeup), they all miss the entire point of this movie: it's the story of Korea and the Korean people. Well, at least South Koreans.I have no evidence, but I wouldn't be surprised if the director came up with the penultimate scene, where Deok-soo weeps about how hard his life had been is juxtaposed with his family singing and clapping in the next room, and built a movie around it. That one image captures the heart of the South Korean people: prosperous and cosmopolitan, and also scarred and heartbroken. This is why this movie was so popular in Korea. It's a 2-hour catharsis for Koreans.It's disappointing but perhaps not surprising that so many professional American critics were so lazy in their reviews. I have non-Korean friends who *did* get the film's theme, but apparently it was because their hearts and minds were open to it.

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.