Rating: 
Summary: One of the most touching movies I've seen in a long time
Review: This movie is so quiet and understated, yet so amazingly able to convey the feelings, emotions, and motivations of the two main characters, the grandmother and grandson.
At first you just want to slap the petulant, ingrateful little brat. Over and over he shows appalling mean-spiritedness and selfishness toward his patient and loving grandmother, yet with silent grace she wisely shrugs it off with the understanding of youthful spite that only comes with age. Her love for him is unwavering.
He is indolent and thoughtless. But time after time, she suffers through without a word, without losing patience. While he lays on the floor playing his gameboy, she sweeps the floor around him. When he hides her shoes, she walks to market barefoot. When she can't afford busfare for both, she sends him home on the bus and walks home herself. She barters her goods to buy him a chicken for dinner (walking home in the rain) and he complains that it's not fried. Argh!
Yet despite constant abuse from her grandson, her love and patience for him doesn't relent. Without a word, we can see the grandmother's unconditional love.
Stories like this are all about the redeeming ending, so you know the rascal is going to come around eventually, and by the end you're trying to hasten it along. It becomes almost emotionally exhausting watching this long-suffering elderly lady sacrifice so much of herself just to placate this tempermental brat.
In the end, the shell cracks and he does begin to show some sentiment toward her - walking home with her, covering her with a blanket, and returning her hairpin. When it's time to leave he's in tears, worried about her health and how she'll keep in touch with him.
The dialogue in this film is minimal - the grandmother, who is mute, never speaks at all. Yet through precise and insightful direction and cinematography, the message being conveyed is never lost. Through actions we can all relate to, the stubborness of youth and the patience and wisdom of the elderly, much of this story is told visually. It is done so beautifully and in such a subtle, yet clear, manner that every scene seems like a personal revelation. The storyline, filming, and interaction of the actors is masterful.
Truly an excellent, touching film.
Rating: 
Summary: Tear jerker
Review: This movie made me cry so much, it should come with a warning: Have a box of tissue in hand. The grandmother's unconditional love to his spoiled "westernized" grandson just warms the heart. The movie is so real in that the grandmother is not played by an actor, but by an elderly woman who lives the life of her character. There is no Hollywood especial effects or make-up involved - the callous on her hands and feet, the missing finger, the hunch back, are all real. She did not have a stunt double to do the dangerous climb up the rocky terrain to her hut. The most tear jerker scene was when she was selling the squash that she grew herself at the market, and no one would even stop to see or even buy them.
The simplicity of this movie draws you in. You just want to help out the grandmother and slap the little boy. I recommend that this movie be seen with the grandchildren and grandparents.
Rating:
Summary: Your Heart Will Thank You!
Review: This was a very tender and sweet South Korean film. Sang-Woo, a seven year old is sent by his mother, who is in search of work, to stay with his mute grandmother. Sang-Woo is a very selfish boy who is spoiled by the city life. At first, he is very disrespectful of his 75-year old grandmother. As time goes on, however, Sang-Woo begins to learn to love her. The transformation of Sang-Woo and the patience of the grandmother is profoundly moving. This was just a simple 88-minute movie - proof that big things come in small packages.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Sweet Movie
Review: Very touching. Anyone who loved Zhang Ziyi in The Road Home will certainly like this one. This movie documents unconditional love. Most all Grandmothers will cry at the end. Why can't Hollywood make a movie like this?
Rating:
Summary: Let Time Go Lightly
Review: Well not many do, but this one made me cry. The plot is so simple. The Grandmother agrees to help her daughter by watching her 7 year old son for a little while so she can find work. The Grandmother lives alone in a shanty and farms in the mountains. She's a deaf-mute and doesn't say a single word, she walks
slowly, stooped over her little walking stick. The boy is an arrogant, selfish, noisy city lad, who just wants to play his electronic game. During a period of about 8 weeks, his life slowly gets assumed into his Grandmother's. The movie ends predictably. It is so sweetly written, and such a patient, patient, camera for this patient, patient, woman. This story is about strength in frailty. The vulnerability of life and love and human dignity. A distilled fragile relationship that grows out of the time these two souls are allowed to share. Please see this one when you have time to just get absorbed into it, preferably with someone of any age. I can't imagine anyone who would not like this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT SUBTITLED FILM FOR PEOPLE AFRAID OF SUBTITLES
Review: WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE. THIS IS A HEART WARMING STORY THAT IS SIMPLE AND SWEET. SPOILED ROTTEN BUT UNHAPPY YOUNG CITY BOY IS TAKEN TO LIVE WITH GRANDMA WHO LIVES IN A VILLAGE IN A HUT. HE IS, OFCOURSE, HORRIFIED AND MEAN TO THE OLD LADY. THE GRANDMA IS VERY PATIENT AND REMINDS ME OF "THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD" SHE JUST KEEPS ON CHUGGING UP THE HILL OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP.SINCE THE GRANDMOTHER IS A MUTE, THERE IS NOT TOO MUCH DIALOG. MY FIRST GRADER WATCHED WITH ME AND HE READ PART OF IT AND HAD NO PROBLEM KEEPING UP WITH THE STORY. I NEVER THOUGHT A NEEDLE AND THREAD COULD MAKE ME CRY.
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL
Review: When we first meet 7-year-old Sang Woo we are greatly tempted to slap and kick him for his many selfish and spoiled actions he commits against others. He is the typical bratty child. But after he is sent to live with his grandmother in the Korean countryside while his mother looks for employment in Seoul, Sang Woo gradually transforms his attitude towards others and starts to appreciate those around him more. He progressively begins to appreciate the actions of both his mute grandmother and the neighbor children. At the end of his stay his separation from his grandmother is painful and heart breaking for both of them. They have created a bond across generations that is filled with love and understanding. THE WAY HOME is a beautiful film that is difficult to forget. I certainly felt lonely for my own deceased grandmother while watching this film. The ending tribute dedicated to all grandmothers was a nice touch. Also, the cinematography of the Korean countryside was breath taking. I highly recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, man! Do NOT miss this wonderful film
Review: While trying to find a self-supporting job, a stressed-out single mom leaves her 7yo son with his grandmother, a crippled, horribly bent-over, backwards living, ancient crone who lives in a dilapidated hut in the middle of a mountainous rural area. Not only that: she's mute. The boy arrives with battery-operated video toys, spoiled, demanding, and scornful of his grandmother, her home, his surroundings. She, in turn, is stoic, uncomplaining, forgiving, bestowing unconditional love on the truly unlikeable kid.
Slowly, as the movie unfolds, the boy learns love and respect.
An amazing film, made more so by the fact that the old woman essentially plays herself. Not only had she never acted in a film before; she'd never even SEEN one.
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