The next day, almost all the critics and reporters who attended the VIP premiere of "The Way Home" lavished praise on the film's excellence. One newspaper even directly stated that, by the end of the year, at least one of the three major film awards for Best Picture had already been reserved.

Meanwhile, a review in the entertainment section of the Central Daily was considered the most fair and appropriate. The Central Daily’s exclusive film critic, renowned director Peter Johnson, commented as follows:

In a film market dominated by computer effects and violence, a story about a grandmother can be considered an outlier, almost like a fairy tale. But fairy tales can exist in movies. "The Way Home" gently tells a story of ordinary, simple, and pure life, without any trace of fabrication, and without falling into childish sentimentality. What it offers is hearty laughter and warm emotion—this is the effect "The Way Home" strives for.

In the film, the grandmother’s silent dedication and care gradually lead her spoiled grandson Andrew to understand the meaning of love, and to build a touching relationship with his grandmother. The waves of conflicts between the two, both funny and exasperating, also give rise to love that is moving and brings a lump to the throat.

Director Emily Thompson aims to create films that fully embody the meaning of life. Her work vividly expresses the unique perspective of a female director, with meticulous attention to detail and atmosphere, moving the audience with subtlety and emotion. I can confidently affirm here: Director Emily Thompson is now qualified to be among the best of Korean film directors.

Moreover, the actors in the film are also praiseworthy. The actress playing the mute grandmother, Irene King, has lived her entire life in a mountain village.

She had never seen a movie in her life. The young actor playing the grandson, Mark King, grew up in America and had no prior acting experience. Yet these two people, who had never been in front of a camera, along with two equally impressive young actors and more than a dozen local villagers, completed such a masterpiece in just twenty-five days. It is truly moving.

Reviews like this were everywhere. However, despite the high praise, everyone also seriously predicted low box office returns. A heartwarming film without star power was unlikely to achieve great box office success. The most optimistic magazine predicted the film might reach 1.5 million viewers, while most other media outlets estimated around one million.

But just two weeks later, these media outlets that attended the premiere were proven wrong—and the ones who proved them wrong were other media outlets.

In the first week, at the beginning, only about thirty theaters screened the film, and showtimes were scheduled for the afternoon. However, what the media did not expect was that their own praise attracted a considerable number of their peers to check it out.

Thus, word of mouth began to spread. Starting with traditional media, by the third day, the emerging online media and netizens began discussing the film on forums in large numbers.

From the third day on, people began actively inquiring about the film at theaters. The number of such people kept increasing, and theaters were happy to see a film like this using up their allotted domestic film slots. As a result, more big screens were added, and showtimes were gradually adjusted.

On one hand, there was media acclaim; on the other, word of mouth among audiences. By the end of the first week, "The Way Home" had become the main topic of conversation in the film world. The unique nature of the film’s subject matter also created a new viewing trend: in the last three weeks of summer vacation, grandparents brought their grandchildren—and sometimes the whole family—often coming in groups, multiple times, to watch the film.

By the end of the second week, the film had reached 198,000 viewers; in the third week alone, it achieved 334,000. By the end of summer vacation, within a month, "The Way Home" had a total box office of 872,000 viewers.

Of course, this trend continued until the end of October, and by the time the film officially left theaters, the total audience had surpassed four million. The film was recognized as the representative of heartwarming Korean cinema.

The film’s huge success not only quadrupled the investment from Mark King’s family, but also brought him a great deal of trouble. Often, while walking down the street, elderly people with white hair would come up, pat his head, and praise him for being cute. This peaked after he started school, and it was no longer just older people bothering him. A group of kids in school, barely in their teens, were even harder to deal with than adults. If it were just autograph requests or questions about his experience filming, it would be fine, but in just two months, he had already received dozens of love letters.