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Ode to My Father tells the life of Duk-soo, who is separated from his father as a boy during the Hungnam evacuation in December 1950 and grows up to carry his family through decades of Korean history. The film’s center is Busan, and its most important place is the market where Duk-soo settles: Gukje Market, where his father’s last words — if he does not come back, they will meet at Gukje Market — echo through the whole story. Around that center, the film gives a Busan day in three parts: a Jung-gu market-and-park walk, a Saha-gu coast of evacuation scenes, and an eastern extension at the yachting center.
Why Busan, and why this market
The Busan Film Commission piece calls Ode to My Father a “Busan film”: planned over seven to eight years as a story of a father’s generation and their effort and self-sacrifice, it was shot mostly in Busan apart from overseas filming, over 49 days from September 3 to Dec 10, 2013.
Gukje Market itself carries that history. The Film Commission piece traces it from a wartime evacuation area to a post-liberation empty lot, then to a flea market where Japanese residents sold their belongings, known at first as Dotdaegi Market after a verb for merchants scrambling for goods. Later goods came largely from the American Army base, about sixty kinds, including clothing and canned food.
Jung-gu: markets and park
Gukje Market is the guide’s only confirmed stop, and the one to spend time in. The Busan Film Commission piece says Duk-soo settled here after the evacuation and lived his new life from the 1950s to the 1980s, and Korea JoongAng Daily names Kkotbunine, the small shop in the market that featured in the film. That shop was last reported in 2015, so this guide names the market as the stop and the shop inside it, without promising that one small shop is still trading. Jagalchi Market and Yongdusan Park, both listed by the Film Commission among the film’s main Busan locations, complete the Jung-gu walk — with no specific scene claimed for either, because the source names none.
Visiting the Jung-gu cluster
Visit Busan’s film-themed tour describes present-day Gukje Market as still overflowing with things to eat, see and enjoy along streets including Gourmand Alley, Patbingsu Alley, Cosmetics Alley and Antique Alley, with traces of time in its narrow alleyways. Jagalchi Market is Korea’s largest seafood market, where VisitKorea describes live fish and seafood on the first floor and sliced raw fish or grilled seafood upstairs. At Yongdusan Park, Busan City describes a hillside park topped by the 120-metre Busan Tower, with free park admission, a paid tower observatory, and the octagonal pavilion, flower clock, citizens’ bell and statue of Yi Sun-sin among its facilities.
Saha-gu and Suyeong: the coast and the search
Dadaepo Beach and Gamcheon Port share one scene: the Busan Film Commission piece says the Hungnam evacuation scene with many extras was shot at both places. They are a coast leg, not a beach day — Gamcheon Port in particular is a working port, to be viewed from public areas only. Suyeong Yachting Center, in eastern Busan, is the guide’s extension: the Film Commission piece says the KBS television-program scene depicting the search for displaced families took place there, a quiet counterpoint to the evacuation scenes, and a reminder of what the market promise was for.
Dadaepo Beach today
The evacuation scene’s beach is, today, a public beach where the Nakdong River meets the South Sea, which Busan City presents for its sunrise, sunset and sandy beach. The city lists free admission and facilities including restrooms and showers. Gamcheon Port, by contrast, stays a viewed-from-outside stop: it is a working port, not a beach walk.
Getting there
The Jung-gu cluster sits together in central Busan, the coast leg sits to the west in Saha-gu, and Suyeong sits to the east. No last-mile transit route was verified for any stop from the sources used here, so check subway, bus or taxi options on arrival, and recheck each place’s access on the day. For more Busan filming places, see Pachinko’s Busan, Black Panther’s Busan and Train to Busan.
How we checked
All six stops come from the Busan Film Commission’s location piece, checked on Oct 27, 2026, and Gukje Market has a second independent source in Korea JoongAng Daily’s 2015 report on the market shop featured in the film. Scene details appear only where the Film Commission piece states them; places it lists without a scene are presented without one. The film’s demolished Gijang set is explicitly not a stop. Our methodology explains how each label is earned.
Sources
- Busan Film Commission (KOFIC): They Were There! In Gukje Market
- Korea JoongAng Daily: Retailer to keep shop seen in movie (Feb 17, 2015)
- Visit Busan: Busan, Movie and the City
- VisitKorea: Korea Beyond Seoul
- Busan Metropolitan City: Dadaepo Beach
- Busan Metropolitan City: Yongdusan Park
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