Movie Review--The Way Home

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Movie Review—The Way Home
I had an opportunity to view three great movies, The Twilight Samurai, Not One Less, and The Way Home. I had a difficult time picking a favorite, but I settled for The Way Home. The reason why I selected this movie was because I felt that it had many important elements that I felt were very worthy of mention. The beginning of the movie was quite upsetting to me because I just couldn’t understand why the protagonist was being so rude and disrespectful towards his grandmother. I had to hang on and watch intently to learn a lesson from what I was observing. As the movie progressed I was able to discover that although little was said by the grandmother her actions just spoke louder than words that could have ever been spoken. Eventually the young grandson learns the best lesson of love and selflessness through the constant sacrifices that his grandmother makes for him.
I really liked the movie because I learned that the best lessons we can teach our children and students are not the lessons that we spend endless hours preparing, but the best lessons are those that lend themselves to our daily life and the way we handle certain situations. Through the grandmother’s patience and perseverance her grandson learned to feel compassion, love, and kindness towards his elderly grandmother. The grandmother’s actions served as valuable lessons for me causing me to reflect that children learn from observing and that I am accountable for the lessons that they learn.
I will most certainly use this film with my students to allow them to learn the lesson of selfless giving and how they can learn many important lessons from others that will help them to become caring and compassionate individuals. I can also point out to students the difference between materialism and the importance of relationships.

[Anonymous]

I also enjoyed this film. I thought the message that the film shared with us is a valuable one. As mentioned in the other post, children often learn by seeing what we do, not as much by reading or doing what they're told. There was some discussion in our group after the film about how the boy should be punished or that his grandmother was too easy on him or didn't show him the right kind of discipline when he was horrible to her. In the end though, her style of teaching or her way of loving her grandson was the only way she knew how. It turned out to be the best possible situation in the end. Ah, the endless power of love. This was an inspiring film.

[Anonymous]

I really agree with lacosta's post. This was a beautiful film. The simplicity of the message that it is better to demonstrate loving behavior than to preach about it was wonderfully portrayed.

I think I personally would have lost my temper in the beginnig and could not have bee so patient. My one concern was, why this women was left alone. Was this orignally a very disfunctional family, was there some kind of stigma due to her disabilities that made her children leave her there alone without care and then to burden her with the grandchild or was this also a learning experience for her maybe a change in her behavior in old age. Where were her children why did they not have filial love and concern for the her? Was this also a contrst in the old confucian ways plus country life vs. the changing ways of modern Korea and the lose of filial piety in the current generation ? [Edit by="lgates on Sep 26, 11:18:35 PM"][/Edit]

This is one of those movies that provokes all kinds of thought and conversation. The three generations depicted can give any viewer a point of identification. This would be an excellent film to use in the classroom to open up discussions with my sixth graders. Will they be outwardly angry at the young boy or actually see themselves in that caracter? So many of my students are being raised by grandmothers or someone other than their mother. I really think this is a good crosscultural kind of movie to show my students the common conntections with all of humanity, to let them see that some of the situations they are in, are also taking place on the otherside of the planet. To have students become intropective and analyze how they might behave in a similar situation would be a good exercise in confucian philosophy and the current social traditions of families today in the usa. Truly recommend this film to upper elementary, intermediate schl., middle school and jr hi schl.[Edit by="lgates on Sep 28, 11:07:44 PM"][/Edit]

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