Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Khemaluck Deeprawat I watched this film with my mom and she was so drawn in. She and the main character comes from the same generation. I think that while watching this movie, my mom and people her age understand a lot more than I know how it feels to live a hard life and to build up your family from nothing. Although my mom isn't a Korean, she can relates to those days when the oldest child of the family have to sacrifice happiness in his or her life for the younger ones. I think this is a film with a big heart and I'm glad that it was created because younger people can learn to appreciate and understand their parents or grandparents more. It is beautifully filmed, well-acted, and contain a story that is somehow feel "real" to me although many scenes are too intentionally sentimental. It makes you feel what is like to be someone who live in that generation. It makes you appreciate and understand older people in your family much more. The story goes through a whole life of a person but I don't feel that it's too long. There are moments of tears and moments of laughter, you can both cry and smile while watching it. I highly recommend this film for both the older and the younger generation in your family.

vks_vishwa What a beautiful movie. By far the best Korean movie I have ever seen. It starts with flashback of an old man's story, gets separated from his father and sister when he was a small guy. While separating from his father, the father entrusts him with the responsibility of the entire family. The entire story revolves around this. He strives very hard, travels places, makes his brother and sister study in University, etc. It's a beautifully narrated movie. One must watch it. One more special character in this movie is hi is friend who accompanies him during fights, war, mining, etc. He is also an interesting character. Probably without him the entire movie would look a little incomplete.Overall, a truly entertaining, beautiful and mesmerizing movie. It makes you to go back to your roots. Amazed... Thank you.

Jack Stars Ode to My Father was an interesting Korean movie. When a movie has a good enough story and plot behind it, the peripheral aspects that might not be that great such as acting, subtitles, or graphic effects can be forgiven in spite of their deficiencies. This movie contained some of those qualities. Since it was in Korean the majority of it had to be read with subtitles save the parts of dialogue from American G.I.'s. However the movie draws you in that that was not a hindrance as it was easy to forget that you were even reading what was being said.Ode to My Father is sort of Forrest Gump (1994) meets a Korean drama. We see the story focus on Duk-soo's (Jeong-min Hwang) life from the time he was a young boy fleeing Korea during the Korean War, along with aspects of his life throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's all the way to the present when he is an old man. This movie seems to use Duk-soo's reality as a representation of the many struggles and hardships of life that a lot of Koreans went through following the Korean War. Its sub-point of intent may have been to point out these struggles to the young Korean generation of today in order that they would have some realization with what their grandparents sacrificed so that they may have the life they do today.One thing this movie has is a lot of heart and it is clearly portrayed by the actors, many times in an over-the-top manner. It is definitely melodramatic. But that may have been the directors intent to try to get the point across for how hard this guy's life was. There is one scene where everyone on screen is crying and wailing away and a woman says, "I miss my mommy" to the point it wasn't coming across as to stir empathetic emotions rather it was comical and unbelievable, unfortunately. There were some comic relief moments throughout, but even those scenes were cheesy and accompanied with what sounded like clown music. One actress American audiences may recognize is Yunjin Kim who played Sun Kwan on the series LOST (2004). She was probably the best actor in the movie while the other main actors did a decent job; however there were some bit-part actors that were not believable at all as their acting seemed on par with a bad high school play. The special effects were pretty good and cinematography not bad. Though there were some silly moments throughout the film these can be overlooked when focusing on the story. Boredom or tiredness never set in while watching this as it held my interest the whole time.It is a movie worth checking out. Koreans for sure will relate better to it than some foreigners, but it does offer an insight into Korean life of yore for the non-native Korean. I give it 6 out of 10 stars as it was little better than your average movie.

easyspeakkorean Wowww! I don't know where to start. The movie was so much better than my expectation after reading the IMDb's movie critics' reviews. I feel compelled to disagree with some of the criticisms that this movie tried to be melodramatic, some scenes were unnecessarily too comical, and that it was improbable and unrealistic for a person to go through all such tumultuous events. I like to recommend those critics to read about the 20th century Korean history.My mother now in her 80's experienced many of the same experiences and some additional events in her lifetime: the Japanese occupation (1910- 1945), her 11 -year old classmates being shipped off by Japanese as wartime prostitutes during WWII (1939-1945), Korean independence (1948), Korean War (1950-1953) during which time she was a refugee in Busan, etc. Immediately after WWII, after Japan exhausted all of Korea's natural resources, goods and men to fuel their war engines, Korean War broke. Whatever remained standing or fertile were bombed or burned up. After the Korean War, Korea was literally in rubble and ashes. Many families were split up and scattered during the war. The Streets were covered with orphans. Holt Adoption Agency placed many Korean orphans in American homes. These are all accurate.As an early teen (in early 1960's), I was hearing about many Koreans hiring themselves out to foreign countries to find work as miners, nurses, or soldiers. The movie was also accurate that Germany did not extend the visas of foreigner miners for they were hired to make up for their temporary labor shortage. I do agree with the critics that some of the acting was a bit raw, but they were soon forgotten as the movie pulled me into the story. I appreciated the funny scenes in the movie, for without them, it would have been too depressing to watch. This is a wonderful, wonderful movie, you must see! It is playing in K-Town at CGV theater. Also good eats in the same shopping mall.