Maybe it was my mood, but this film fell far short as an experience. It was interesting to see the S. Korean countryside and to get an unvarnished look at the folk there, but 30 minutes of silent cinematography could have done that as well or better. If we're bothering to have a script and actors, let's have a little depth and progression.
Although I'm an American male I'm not immune to quiet, honest and powerful portrayals of life in far different cultures. This film is quiet, it's honest, but it's weak. Above all, the boy is too far off the brat-o-meter. When he urinates into his grandma's shoes, that's it for me. I mean I, my siblings and cousins certainly had our bratty phases and periods in which we didn't show adequate respect for our grandparents, but never, never would we have done something like that. It's too way out and the kid needs to do about a hundred times more than he does later to redeem himself.
Secondly, many here have admired the grandmother's "unconditional love". I'm sorry, but this kid desperately needed some opposition. I don't mean she should have taken him to the woodshed. Just a stern glance and a small shake of the head would at least have told the little creep that he would do well to reflect upon himself.
And what was meant in the scene where granny fails to match the block shapes with the corresponding holes? I'm sorry but this seems to mean that her apparent feeble-mindedness is not simply age-related. Nothing against dim people, you know, but it just serves to make her tolerance of the brat look like blindness, not wisdom. It's as if she can't even work it out in her mind that his behavior doesn't fit any definition of half-acceptable, and so the whole thing becomes exasperating rather than compelling.
Scene after scene is single-note. The ever-suffering (or perhaps too dim to really suffer much) granny shuffling along, bent more to the horizontal than any hunchback. The city kid oblivious to everything but his own desires except for about 12 seconds of screen time in which some care for granny slips through. 12 seconds is not enough.
I got the distinct feeling the writer and/or the director (or the writer/director) was trying to expiate some atrocious behavior of his/her own as a child. I hope this person's real grandmother lived long enough to get some justice. Otherwise, the long lingering shots of the shuffler and the snot-nose just aren't balanced by enough layered meaning in the rest of the film. If the director develops his/her sense of contrast and drama in the future he/she may turn out something worthwhile.
Although I'm an American male I'm not immune to quiet, honest and powerful portrayals of life in far different cultures. This film is quiet, it's honest, but it's weak. Above all, the boy is too far off the brat-o-meter. When he urinates into his grandma's shoes, that's it for me. I mean I, my siblings and cousins certainly had our bratty phases and periods in which we didn't show adequate respect for our grandparents, but never, never would we have done something like that. It's too way out and the kid needs to do about a hundred times more than he does later to redeem himself.
Secondly, many here have admired the grandmother's "unconditional love". I'm sorry, but this kid desperately needed some opposition. I don't mean she should have taken him to the woodshed. Just a stern glance and a small shake of the head would at least have told the little creep that he would do well to reflect upon himself.
And what was meant in the scene where granny fails to match the block shapes with the corresponding holes? I'm sorry but this seems to mean that her apparent feeble-mindedness is not simply age-related. Nothing against dim people, you know, but it just serves to make her tolerance of the brat look like blindness, not wisdom. It's as if she can't even work it out in her mind that his behavior doesn't fit any definition of half-acceptable, and so the whole thing becomes exasperating rather than compelling.
Scene after scene is single-note. The ever-suffering (or perhaps too dim to really suffer much) granny shuffling along, bent more to the horizontal than any hunchback. The city kid oblivious to everything but his own desires except for about 12 seconds of screen time in which some care for granny slips through. 12 seconds is not enough.
I got the distinct feeling the writer and/or the director (or the writer/director) was trying to expiate some atrocious behavior of his/her own as a child. I hope this person's real grandmother lived long enough to get some justice. Otherwise, the long lingering shots of the shuffler and the snot-nose just aren't balanced by enough layered meaning in the rest of the film. If the director develops his/her sense of contrast and drama in the future he/she may turn out something worthwhile.