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Ode to My Father

Play trailer Poster for Ode to My Father 2015 2h 6m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 8 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Duk-soo lost his father and younger sister while taking refuge during the Korean War. He leaves for Germany to work as a miner and enters the Vietnam War. He wishes to find his sister.

Critics Reviews

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Michael Rechtshaffen Los Angeles Times 01/08/2015
Tugging shamelessly yet persuasively on the heartstrings, "Ode to My Father" is an epic South Korean melodrama capturing more than half a century of recent history through the eyes of an everyman shopkeeper. Go to Full Review
Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times 01/08/2015
"Ode to My Father" may have slain them in South Korea, but its packaged pain and bullet-point structure are likely to leave Western audiences cold. Go to Full Review
Randy Cordova Arizona Republic 01/08/2015
2.5/5
Everything is lathered with a syrupy, string-laden musical score designed to gnaw at a viewer's tear ducts. It's about as subtle as having an off-screen narrator yell "Start crying!" before big scenes, and probably as effective. Go to Full Review
Jae-Ha Kim Jae-Ha Kim (Substack) 07/26/2023
3/4
During the Korean War, Deok-Su loses his baby sister and their father never returns home. These losses will haunt him for the rest of his life, as he tries to fulfill his promise to his father that he would take care of their family. Go to Full Review
Tan Kee Yun The New Paper (Singapore) 09/20/2017
5/5
Hwang is excellent in his portrayal of the selfless everyday man. Lost alumnus Kim Yun Jin, who plays Deok Soo's wife, is amazing too. Go to Full Review
Joe Bendel Epoch Times 05/30/2016
3/5
It's too bad the treatment of Capt. LaRue will likely put off those who are familiar with him as a historical figure, because the work of Hwang and Oh give Ode real heart. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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01/10/2022 As someone living out the consequences and reverberations of Korean history, both the effects the people, split into two nations, have created and the effects the world left upon the Korean people, I found "Ode to My Father" simply touching. Its Forrest Gump-like, heartstring-pulling tour of modern South Korean history was deeply moving as I drew the dots between the characters the stellar cast portrayed and my own family and came to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the journey of the Korean people. Speaking of Forrest Gump, in a style reminiscent but not quite as memorable or, well, good, as that film, "Ode to My Father" makes several historical/cultural references that, while possibly being impactful and humorous for an older, more, uhh, Korean audience, I found these attempts at humor and historicity overly cheesy and unnecessary. Still, this made little detraction overall, and I was in tears several times throughout the film. 8/10 bring tissues See more 12/02/2021 The best Korean movie. See more 05/02/2019 Good movie. Expresses Korean values beautifully. See more 07/18/2017 Too much things in a 2 hours movie. A bit scattered stories, everywhere. See more 05/31/2016 South Korea's answer to Forrest Gump- less flashy, but more humanist, anti-war and even more sentimental (not surprising as it's from Korea), spanning six decades of turbulent history. Excellent production values and performances, and one of the those rare films which are both critical darlings and commercially successful. See more 03/26/2016 Very well done movie. Expresses Korean values beautifully. See more Read all reviews
Ode to My Father

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis Duk-soo lost his father and younger sister while taking refuge during the Korean War. He leaves for Germany to work as a miner and enters the Vietnam War. He wishes to find his sister.
Director
Yoon Je-kyoon
Producer
Lee Sang-jik, Kim Yang-yeon
Screenwriter
Park Su-jin
Distributor
CJ Entertainment
Production Co
JK Film
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Korean
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 9, 2015, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA)
$2.3M
Runtime
2h 6m