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But back
to that “everyone should see it” thing… There is a wonderful
Korean film that you may not get a chance to see that I would
love to see in the VCRs of every family with pre-teens.
It’s called The Way Home and its directed by
Lee Jeong-Hyang.
The story
is simple. A young boy, somewhere between 8 and 10, is
forced to stay with his grandmother for an undetermined amount
of time while his single mother takes care of some business.
But this grandma isn’t living in a condo by the beach. She lives in a traditional shack in the middle
of nowhere with a TV that doesn’t really work, no appliances
and no nearby malls… on top of that, she is mute.
I like to
think of the film as Local Hero for Kids, as the boy has to
adapt from his urban kid lifestyle to the slow, simple ways
of generations before. Will
he do it? Will it
work out? Can love
overcome? I bet you know the answers. But that hardly matters. This film is about the journey and about remembering
the journey that we all take in our lives.
As I thought about
my own nephew and niece while I watched The Way Home,
I was thinking about what they would get out of the film.
But I also allowed myself to think about what lessons
I was learning… how they use all of the modern technology,
but how much fun they can have with the most simple of games
and toys. Do they
need to relearn the way home or do we adults?
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