“The Way Home” (집으로)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
January 6, 2022

☆☆☆☆
Grandmother (played by Kim Eul-Boon)
Sang-Woo (played by Yoo Seung-Ho)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“The Way Home” is a bittersweet film about a young Seoul boy who is forced to spend the summer with his grandmother, who lives in the countryside. It’s not a quaint rural area that rich folks like to vacation in. Rather, it’s a small village where the bus comes on a irregular schedule and an angry cow chases little children. And even among the impoverished residents there, Grandmother is one of the poorest, with a small home that’s impossible to keep tidy (though she tries) and an outhouse that the child finds barbaric.

Sang-Woo’s mother drops the boy off and promises to return in a couple months when she has secured a new job. The grandmother’s hearing is intact, but she is unable to speak. She clearly understands that the child doesn’t want to be there. Sang-Woo cruelly and incessantly taunts her, referring to her as 병신/byeongshin — a derogatory word for stupid or retarded, which she is not. Bent over at a 90-degree angle from decades of hard labor and, most likely, lack of health care, she accepts what he says calmly. She has probably heard other children (and adults) say the same thing to her. But the hurt in her eyes is heartbreaking.

For much of the film, Sang-Woo is beyond bratty, dismissing his grandmother as 병신, partly because he is spoiled, but also because he is angry at having been left with someone he doesn’t know in an area where he doesn’t want to be.

His grandmother does everything she can to provide the luxuries that he wants. When he demands Kentucky Fried Chicken — which she has never heard of — she mistakenly thinks he is merely asking for chicken. She spends all day selling her vegetables to afford the live chicken that she brings home, butchers and makes into a delicious 삼계탕/samgyetang (ginger chicken soup). Out of spite, Sang-Woo refuses to eat it. But after she falls asleep, he gives in and hungrily tucks into the savory dish.

As the weeks progress, his heart opens up to her a little at a time. He begins to process the sacrifices she makes for things he previously took for granted. After selling squash from her garden, she buys him a new pair of shoes, while she wears her old ones that she stitches together to hold them in place. She treats him to lunch at a restaurant. While he is eating, he notices that his grandmother is only drinking water. When she pays, she is left only with a few coins for their bus fare.

The one element I wished had been altered was the daughter-mother relationship. A 76-year-old woman playing the mother of a woman in her mid-20s isn’t believable. Director/writer Lee Jeong-Hyang could’ve rectified this age discrepancy by making her Sang-Woo’s great grandmother instead. Kim Eul-Boon, who had never acted before, is a natural on screen with an expressive face and movements that convey her complicated emotions.

The acting at both ends of the age spectrum is simply beautiful. Kim and Yoo are convincing and viewers will be drawn into their relationship.

Film release: The 87-minute film released theatrically in South Korea on April 5, 2002.

Trivia: Kim Eul-boon had never acted before (or since), when she accepted this role at the age of 76. (At the age of 95, she died of natural causes on April 17, 2021.) Yoo Seung-Ho was just nine years old when he made his film debut in “The Way Home.” He would grow up to be a prolific actor, with roles in the K-dramas “Warrior Baek Dong-Soo,” “I’m Not a Robot,” “Memorist” and “Moonshine.”

Spoiler alert: As promised, his mom sends word that she’ll be taking him back to Seoul soon. Worrying about his grandmother, Sang-Woo threads a bunch of needles, knowing that her eyes are too weak to do so herself. He also teaches her how to read and write a few simple phrases: “I miss  you.” “I’m sick.” Right before he leaves, he gives her cards where he has already pre-written messages along with handdrawn pictures illustrating what the words mean. If she is sick or misses him, mail the cards, he tells her, and he will come back to take care of her. Of course, he is 7 and is reliant on his mother to take him to his grandmother. And while his mom promises her mother that she will visit more often, the viewer is left wondering whether she will follow through, especially since it seems that she hadn’t visited her mother much prior to this. For whatever reason, she left her disabled mother alone to fend for herself.

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