* Best Film : Grand Bell Award, South Korea
* Winner : Young Artist Award
* Best Film : Baek Sang Film Award

The Way Home is a touching story about a spoiled city boy, Sang Woo, whose single mom falls on hard times. The mom has no choice but to ship the boy off to the rural mountain town where his grandma lives. The grandmother is a hunchback lady with serious osteoporosis from bending over low stoves all her life. She’s also mute and illiterate.Despite the physical setbacks, she works diligently without complaining. Her character is so cute, you fall in love with her right away.
At first, the SangWoo treats his grandma with disrespect and apathy. He assumes she’s a country bumpkin because she’s unfamiliar with the trappings of the modern world.(How could she possible not know what Kentucky Fried chicken is??!!)He tries to keep himself occupied with the things he brought with him from the city: his rollerblades, his toys, his Coca Cola and his tins of Spam. However, after seeing all the sacrafices the gentle old woman makes for him, he soon learns some important lessons about love, kindness, selflessness and humility.
A long way home has a purposefully slow pace to mimick the slow pace of life in the countryside. In the beginning you wonder if anything is going to happen in the movie, but profound moments come out of very simple events. In addition, the striking scenery and the beautiful cinematography makes the movie a delight to watch.

The most remarkable thing about this movie is Eul-boon Kim, the woman who plays the grandmother. She had never even seen a movie before acting in this one! The director Jeong-hyang Lee found her during an extensive talent search among real rural village people. Bring some tissues if you watch this movie (It's a tearjerker!) and don’t forget to call your grandma afterwards to tell her you love her.

The surprise box-office hit of 2002. A grandmother in her 70s living in a secluded mountain village is given care of her grandchild from a big city. Used to city life, the grandson doesn’t like his surroundings and takes his insecurities out on his grandmother. But the bond between them gradually grows. The story line is simple, yet meticulously composed episodes and a superb performance from the first-time actress creates a warm and loving atmosphere and a richly emotional experience.

More accustomed to the luxuries of the modern world, a spoiled seven-year old boy must stay with his old-fashioned grandmother in a small rural village while his mother looks for work. At first Sang-woo rudely rejects his grandmother's way of life. But gradually, through her constant show of kindness and love, he learns to accept and understand the simple pleasures of nature and her lifestyle. Sang-woo leaves the village a different boy. Because of his grandmother, he sees the world around him with a new found respect and appreciation.

THE WAY HOME tells the touching story of two people as they overcome their differences in an effort to find a bond of understanding. The silent and patient grandmother, a creature of nature and solitude, finally reaches her grandson from the material world, by quietly and constantly offering him unconditional love.

When Sang-woo's mother must go off in search of work, he is left to stay with his deaf and mute grandmother. He brings with him not only his game-boy and beloved action-figure postcards from home, but a chip on his shoulder. He is horrified to be in a place without electricity, without indoor plumbing and absolutely "without anything to do!" Sang-woo resists his grandmother's early attempts at pleasing him. He outright rejects her traditional meals, preferring Spam and cola over her kimchi. He plays with his postcards and toys from home as he rudely ignores his grandmother and tries to forget his boring environment.

When the batteries in his game fail, he whines and begs his grandmother to buy him new ones. She solemnly gives the sign for "sorry" and even though Sang-woo understands that she does not have the money, he continues to beg her for the batteries. Frustrated, he steals her ornamental hairpin while she is napping and heads out to their small village to purchase the batteries himself.

This, however, proves fruitless as no one in the rural village has the right-sized batteries. Disappointed and distracted, he heads home but quickly gets lost. Only when a kindly old man gives him a lift on his bicycle, does he safely reach the path to his grandmother's house. And there, on the path, his worried and patient grandmother waits. Noticing her hair held up by a brass spoon, Sang-woo hides the stolen hairpin behind his back and quietly follows her home.

Their difficulties to communicate continue. One afternoon, after a long, tedious attempt at communicating in sign language, the grandmother misinterprets Sang-woo's urge for chicken. She trades her vegetables at the nearby market for a chicken which she then lovingly prepares for Sang-woo. Her ungrateful grandson has a fit -- he didn't want home-cooked chicken, he wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken. Only in the middle of the night - hungry, sad and alone - does he eat his grandmother's chicken.

The first hint of Sang-woo's kindness and change of heart appears when he cares for his sick grandmother the next morning. He gently covers her with warm clothes and awkwardly tries to prepare a meal for her.

Several days later, Sang-woo accompanies his grandmother to the local market. With the small amount of money she makes from selling her vegetables, his grandmother buys Sang-woo a new pair of sneakers and takes him to a Chinese restaurant, two things she can ill afford. But she is pleased to do it and watches him eat as she sips on green tea. A last treat of some chocolate candies tops off the day.

When she puts him on the bus home, Sang-woo doesn't realize that his grandmother does not have enough money for two bus tickeks as he is distracted by meeting up with his two friends: Hae-yeon, a young girl on whom he immediately developed a crush, and a neighborhood boy and rival, Cheol-e.

Sang-woo is surprised when he does not see his grandmother get off the next bus. He waits and waits at the bus stop. Finally, she appears. Exhausted, moving slowly down the dusty, dirt road, she is toting the heavy package that earlier, as Sang-woo sat on the bus next to his friends, he had refused to take. Fighting back his tears, he now takes the package and carries it home. He slips the last chocolate snack, the one he was saving for later, into her bag.

The next day it is Grandma who slips something into Sang-woo's wagon full of toys. She has wrapped his portable game player in plain paper. Thinking it useless, he stuffs it into his pocket and it is not until later, after he has fallen and injured himself, that he unwraps the package. In it he finds not only his game player, but money enough to purchase new batteries. As he stumbles home, his tears are more in recognition of this woman's loving heart than for the scrapes on his knees. And, again, bent and fragile, she appears on the path, awaiting the return of her grandson.

Grandma shows Sang-woo a letter from his mother, who is coming to take him back home to Seoul. Worried that he will lose touch with his illiterate grandmother, Sang-woo makes a desperate attempt to teach her to write a few phrases.

When the day comes for their parting, Sang-woo hands her a small package and hurries to take a seat on the bus next to his mother. As the bus slowly pulls away, Sang-woo makes the sign for "sorry" with tears streaking down his face. When his grandmother can no longer see the bus, she unwraps what Sang-woo so hurriedly handed her. There, pre-written and addressed to Sang-woo, are his beloved postcards. He drew pictures expressing possible situations -- "grandma sick" and "I miss you" - so that his grandmother could easily communicate with him.

After the location was set, the crew searched throughout Youngdong in the hopes of finding their star grandmother. Like finding the location, the search was long and frustrating. One day LEE happened to see an old woman walking towards her in the distance. The moment she saw Eul-Boon KIM, she cried out, "That's her!"

But KIM needed to be persuaded to agree to play the part of Grandma. Not only had she never acted, but she had never seen a motion picture. It was a strange new process, but LEE was finally able to convince KIM to take the role.

Granny KIM surprised the crew everyday with her astute eye, amazing memory and unique acting ability. She knew instinctively what to do and she would remember every gesture and prop that was used in each scene. It was as if the script supervisor had an assistant, someone to help her keep track of every detail.

The young actor who was cast as Sang-woo, Seung-Ho YOO, had only slightly more experience than KIM. He had previously been seen on the television mini-series "Thorn Fish" and LEE thought that YOO would bring the right mischievous quality to the role. She also felt that he had completed a magical duo. "Nothing could be more amazing," she states. "A couple consisting of the youngest and the oldest stars in the history of Korean film is born!"

The rest of the actors and extras were all cast on location. LEE wanted a realism that she felt was only possible by using actual people from the countryside. By employing real villagers, she had to contend with "actors" with real-life responsibilities and retaining them for long periods of time was difficult. As much as villagers from Megock, Semack and Jeetongma enjoyed taking part as extras, as the shooting continued and the seasons changed, many of them had to leave to work their farms during the harvest.