Ma-i pa-deo (2007) Reviews

• A highly emotional Korean movie

  cooldas2007-11-18

  "My Father" is a highly emotional story about an adopted Korean-American man, James Parker, who joins the military stationed in Korea in hopes of finding his birth parents. He tries to learn the Korean language, and goes on a TV show trying to look for his birth parents that he knows nothing about. He meets his birth father, who is an inmate awaiting death row, and tries to find out about him and himself. At first their meetings are awkward, because of the language barrier and their cultural differences, but they manage to communicate with each other and James looks forward to meeting with his father. He learns that his birth mother died soon after his birth, and his father was arrested for murder, although it was in self-defense. Unfortunately, the more James learns about his father, the closer he gets to uncovering the truth, which almost ruins their relationship. Daniel Henney does a great job portraying James Parker, the Korean American searching for his past in a strange and new world of Korea. The rest of the cast is just as good, and you can feel the character's frustration when there is tension between the Korean soldiers and the white American ones, the sadness James feels when he finds out more about his father, etc. Overall, I highly recommend this movie to any Korean, non-Korean, or anyone who just loves a tear jerking movie.

• true story

  osj06232007-12-28

  This is quite good film. "My father" is a true story. actually American couple adopted a boy in Korea and took him to their own country. (the boy's name is James Paker in movie, but real character's name is aron baits) The boy grew up to go back Korea to find his parents. and soon he met his father, who was condemned criminal and his mother had already passed away. but he wasn't disappointed and supported his father in jail. but the condemned criminal is not his real father. (by genetic test, he noticed this fact) It is more amazing that he have kept visiting his father since the fact was disclosed in this movie, the condemned criminal is not his real father but "My father" for James Paker