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A film that joined the ten million admissions club this year and recently snatched the 2nd spot in the all time box office, Ode to My Father looks at the difficult lives of the recent past. The film which deals with fatherly love also induced the tears of the Berlin International Film Festival audiences. Programmed at the 65 Berlinale in the Panorama section, the screening invited 20 special Korean guests who have worked as real miners and nurses in the region just like the characters in the film. The screening took place at the Zoo Palast.

 

The Zoo Palast is the official festival screening venue which also housed Win Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine and Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan led Life. The approximately 1000 seats in the theater was fully filled after the doors opened at 6:30pm. KIM Dong-ho, Chairman of Presidential Committee for Cultural Enrichment, Busan International Film Festival’s Vice Festival Director JEON Yang-jun, as well as Korean Film Council, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Korean Cultural Center in Berlin were in attendance.

 

“Just like its title, Ode to My Father is a film made for my father,” said director JK YOUN as he introduced the screening. When main characters Duk-soo (HWANG Jung-min) and Young-ja (KIM Yun-jin) looks down at the cityscape of Busan, Korean audiences were already absorbed into the film while looking at their long-missed motherland. When Duk-soo’s family become separated during the Korean war, the audiences expressed their discontent by clicking their tongues. Soon, they started to murmer in empathy when Duk-soo chooses to move to Germany to take up the mining job. The audience grew with Duk-soo through the film, and the crowd laughed out loud and shed tears throughout the cultural and historical events.

 

It seemed like the German audiences had a chance to learn the history of Korea that was unfamiliar. In the scene where Duk-soo barely holds onto his breath after being stuck in the coal mine, a female audience grabbed for her handkerchief. While at Duk-soo’s wedding, his friends hit the bottom of Duk-soo’s foot until they get what they wanted. This traditional event is very culture-specific, but even the audiences that didn’t know much about Korean culture bursted out laughing at Young-ja’s awkward song.

 

Ending credits rolled and a German audience in her twenties had red eyes. “It’s a heavy story but the way the drama was intertwined within the history was good,” she said. Another audience commented, “I don’t know much about history, but losing one’s family and having that guilt overpower your life led him to sacrifice himself and that was something I could related to.” He added, “because I knew about the miners and the nurses from that period in Germany, I was attracted to their story. I wish I knew more about the references to historical figures as I didn’t catch anyone else except for Hyundai motors.”

 

JK YOUN and KIM Yun-jin came up on stage for the Q&A and many praised KIM for her German. YOUN said, “the modern Korea was thanks to the sacrifice of our parents’ generation and I wanted to tell that story to the younger generation.” YOUN then followed up with a discussion of his film for about ten minutes. Although it was more of a presentation than a Q&A, there was no doubt that the film’s fatherly love crossed the border from Korea to globally. The screening of the film will also take place on February 9th, 10th, and the 14th in a total of four screenings at the festival.

 

 

 

 

Still making new records after becoming second on the all-time domestic box office chart, Ode to My Father also moved the hearts of people half way around the globe. Invited to the 65th Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama Section, the film held its official press conference on February 8th. JK YOUN and actress KIM Yun-jin was in attendance to answer questions not only about the film but also about Korean history.

 

After a thorough explanation from director YOUN on the importance of the International Market and the conditions in 1960s Korea, actress KIM Yun-jin threw a light joke that changed the mood of the conference.

 

After debuting in the film industry through My Boss, My Hero (2001), this is YOUN’s first invitation to an international film festival. When asked about how he felt, he answered in short, “it’s an honor for the family.” Actress KIM said, “This is also my first film festival so it holds a special place in my heart...it’s especially an honor to show a film about the pains of a nation’s division in Germany, since it was also once a separated nation.”

 

One African journalist commented, “I didn’t know much about Korean history before, but I finally came to understand a little through Ode to My Father.” Continuing on, “the 60s Europe was overpowered by the three big nations and the pain that went through that period is something I can also relate to. Especially the female characters like Duk-soo’s mother and Young-ja were memorable.” To this, YOUN added, “I’m thankful to KIM for her work...she often played strong roles before, but once you get to know her, she’s very feminine and also funny. She was the perfect actress to be the person that begs the Germans to help Duk-soo when he gets stuck in the mines. Also, she proved herself that she’s fitting for a romantic comedy role as well.”

 

After working in Hollywood through Lost and Mistresses, KIM Yun-jin was asked about her experience in jumping from huge American productions to smaller Korean films. KIM said, “Ode to My Father is a big budget film made in Korea...but the size of the project doesn’t matter to me. The job of the actor is to throw questions to the audiences and introduce them to a new story. Film or a TV series, production costs don’t matter.”

 

One local journalist said, “I didn’t get a chance to watch Ode to My Father yet but I heard the press conference was successful...I thought it would be a foreign subject for me but with the positive response from the conference, I started to have interest. Just looking at the history of a nation’s division, this is a film German audiences should watch.”