The Way Home

The Way Home is a 2002 film written and directed by Lee Jeong-hyang. It tells the heart-warming story about a grandmother and her city-born grandson who comes to live with her in a rural village. The film was named best picture at South Korea's 39th annual Grand Bell (Daejong) Awards and was the second-highest grossing homegrown film in South Korea in 2002. It was released on DVD and VHS in 2003 by Paramount Classics. Plot Seven-year old Sang-woo (Yoo Seung-ho) is taken to the Korean countryside to stay with his 78-year-old mute, but not deaf, grandmother (Kim Eul-boon) while his mother searches for a new job in Seoul. Sang-woo, a spoiled city boy, is unimpressed by the unsophisticated nature of his poor grandmother's home, which has neither electricity nor running water. He acts rudely to his grandmother, ignoring her at times and calling her a byungshin, or "retard," at others. Sang-woo continues to attempt to acclimatize to his unfamiliar environment. One of the grandmother's neighbors is a hard-working country boy who attempts to become friends with Sang-woo, but is rebuffed. The other is a young girl who Sang-Woo is enamored by, but she is more interested in the country boy.