국제시장 Ode to My Father 2014

Ode to My Father (국제시장; Gukjesijang; "Gukje (International) Market") is a 2014 South Korean drama film directed by Yoon Je-kyoon. Starring Hwang Jung-min and Yunjin Kim, it depicts modern Korean history from the 1950s to the present day through the life of an ordinary man as he experiences events such as the Hungnam Evacuation of 1951 during the Korean War, the government's decision to dispatch nurses and miners to Germany in the 1960s, and the Vietnam War.

It is currently the second highest-grossing film in the history of Korean cinema, with 14.2 million tickets sold.

During the Hungnam Evacuation of 1951 in the Korean War, when thousands of refugees in what would become North Korea were transported south by US navy boats, the child Deok-soo loses track of his sister Mak-soon. Because of this, Deok-soo's father stays behind to search for her, telling his son to take his mother and his two younger siblings to the port city of Busan, where Deok-soo's aunt runs an imported goods store. Before leaving Deok-soo and the rest of his family, Deok-soo's father makes Deok-soo promise to be the head of the household in his place.

As the firstborn, Deok-soo becomes the breadwinner of the household from an early age, doing all manner of odd jobs to support his family. In the 1960s, financial need forces him to travel to Europe with his best friend Dal-goo, where they find dangerous work as Gastarbeiters (guest workers) in the German coal mines in order to pay for his brother's tuition to Seoul National University. There, Deok-soo falls in love with a fellow migrant worker, the nurse Young-ja. After a mining accident, Deok-soo leaves Germany because his visa expires. Young-ja returns to Korea months later and reveals to Deok-soo she's pregnant with his child. Soon after, they have a modest wedding and begin a life together, eventually having two sons.

A few years pass and it is revealed that Deok-soo's aunt passed away during this period. Deok-soo's uncle, now elderly and in need of money, decides to sell the imported goods store, a move that Deok-soo is against. Deok-soo decides to leave Korea again in the 1970s for war-torn Vietnam, partly to fulfill his sister's wish for a big wedding and to purchase his late aunt's imported goods store from his uncle. Young-ja is worried, knowing the dangers of wartime, but Deok-soo convinces her to see it his way, partly by roping his best friend Dal-goo into going. Despite his assurances to his wife that he's safe, Deok-soo returns to Korea with a lame leg, a result of getting shot while helping villagers escape from the Viet Cong.

Deok-soo runs the store with his wife, and life goes on until 1983, a time when major broadcast stations in South Korea runs TV programs in which family members separated during the chaos of the Korean War are reunited. Deok-soo is contacted to be featured in one of these shows, due to the hopes of an elderly man from his hometown who claims to be his father. While on television, the two realize that they are indeed from the same hometown back in Hungnam, but sadly realize that there was a mistake and that they are not who they were looking for. Distraught, Deok-soo's family mourns this revelation, but soon after, the same program brings Deok-soo back to broadcast upon having potentially found his long lost sister, Mak-soon. A Korean-American woman who was adopted as a child by a family in the United States during the Korean War is featured on the show. Deok-soo converses with her through the broadcast, realizing that he's indeed talking to his long-lost sister Mak-soon. An emotional reunion ensues when Mak-soon returns to Korea. 

Deok-soo's mother passes away soon after the reunion, and the present day is shown. An elderly Deok-soo finally decides to sell his aunt's imported goods store, which up to this point he stubbornly refused to sell despite the store operating at a deficit. In a flashback to the Hungnam Evacuation, Deok-soo's father promises him that he will come reunite with the rest of the family at his aunt's imported goods store, thus revealing why Deok-soo purchased and held on to the store for so long. In the final scene, Deok-soo admits to his wife that it's time to sell the store, wistfully remarking that his father is probably too old at this point to be still alive and reunite with him at the store.

Cast

• Hwang Jung-min as Yoon Deok-soo
• Yunjin Kim as Young-ja
• Oh Dal-su as Dal-goo
• Jung Jin-young as Deok-soo's father
• Jang Young-nam as Deok-soo's mother
• Ra Mi-ran as Deok-soo's paternal aunt
• Kim Seul-gie as Kkeut-soon
• Lee Hyun as Seung-gyu
• Kim Min-jae as Yoon Do-joo
• Tae In-ho as Yoon Gi-joo
• Hwang Seon-hwa as Yoon Seon-joo
• Uhm Ji-seong as young Deok-soo
• Jang Dae-woong as young Dal-goo
• Shin Rin-ah as young Mak-soon
• Lee Ye-eun as Yoon Seo-yeon
• Choi Jae-sub as Korean miner 1
• Jung Young-ki as Korean miner 2
• Yoo Jung-ho as Korean miner 3
• Maeng Se-chang as Korean miner 4
• Hong Seok-yeon as Deok-soo's uncle
• Stella Choe Kim as Mak-soon Yoon
• Go Yoon as Hyun Bong-hak
• Nam Jin-bok as Chung Ju-yung
• Park Seon-woong as André Kim
• Hwang In-joon as Announcer Kim Dong-geon
• Park Young-seo as President of youth organization
• Jung Yun-ho as Nam-jin

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-ode-to-my-father-south-korea-20150201-story.html