I've seen Korean movies that get pretty "emotional", but this one did a great job of balancing the hard and heavy parts with the light hearted depiction of someone's life.
You may wonder why and how could I say this movie isn't a seemingly intentionally-tear-jerking tryhard movie?
My grandpa's family lived north of the border when the war broke. He had lost a single parent, and as his older brother was in the south of the border when the war started, he became the dedault head. He took care of 5 younger siblings when North Korea forced him to join their side in the Korean war. He however defected to the South, and he began looking for his brother but his brother was kIA. He was not even 20 years old at this point. As a result, he lived in the south with no family and no home. The only time I've seen my grandpa cry was when he talked about his youngest sister he hasn't seen since she was 5.
So in many regards, this movie wasn't an intentionally tear jerking teagedy, it was a tragedy because it was reflecting reality of that time.
You may wonder why and how could I say this movie isn't a seemingly intentionally-tear-jerking tryhard movie?
My grandpa's family lived north of the border when the war broke. He had lost a single parent, and as his older brother was in the south of the border when the war started, he became the dedault head. He took care of 5 younger siblings when North Korea forced him to join their side in the Korean war. He however defected to the South, and he began looking for his brother but his brother was kIA. He was not even 20 years old at this point. As a result, he lived in the south with no family and no home. The only time I've seen my grandpa cry was when he talked about his youngest sister he hasn't seen since she was 5.
So in many regards, this movie wasn't an intentionally tear jerking teagedy, it was a tragedy because it was reflecting reality of that time.