Retour à Séoul

Return to Seoul is an ambitious film, telling the story of a young woman named Freddie, who was born to Korean parents, but grew up in France. She - you guessed it - returns to Seoul, partly motivated to search for them, in her early to mid-20s. From there, the movie plays out sort of the way you'd expect for a while... until it makes some interesting narrative decisions, spanning far more time than I'd expected it would. As such, we get an insight into Freddie and the ways she changes throughout her 20s and into her early 30s.

Tonally, it's very different from The Worst Person in the World, but I got flashes of that film from this; maybe it scratched a similar itch. Each looks at a troubled & flawed, yet interesting, compelling, and sympathetic young protagonist, each spans quite a long period of time, each explores loneliness and the trials and tribulations of early adulthood in a very hard-hitting way, and each is quite visually striking. But like I said, they're tonally different, given Return to Seoul is more of a straightforward drama than a romantic-dramedy, and it gets darker and more in-depth with its exploration of loneliness (which hits extra hard, given what the world's been through since the start of the 2020s).

It's not always clear where the film is going, and some of the decisions it makes are quite jarring (though most work for the story and characters, once the shock wears off). The pacing is quite slow, but the compelling main character, the visually pleasing look of the film, and the amazing acting kept me engaged for almost all of its two-hour runtime. Park Ji-Min gives one of the best performances of 2022, and I was shocked to read this is her first ever movie. A performance like this that's so central makes or breaks this kind of character-focused film, and thankfully, she's up to the task and then some.

This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot. While it was deliberately-paced, it never lost me, and I found some of the scenes quite moving. It's a very good movie; hopefully it won't go under too many people's radars, as Awards Season ramps up.

I could not watch this film without any expectation or prejudice, as I know someone who has a sibling that is an adopted Korean child. However I still tried to keep an open mind, and I think the film is executed well.

Freddie is the only character that is really fleshed out and I think that's right. There are several other characters, notably Freddie's father, that are treated with respect by the film but they are not given a lot of depth. But since it's not their story that is being told they all have to take a back seat to the little girl that it's all about.

After watching this I did a little digging and I found that adoption, foreign or not, is culturally, politically and therefore historically laden in South Korea. You have to want to go looking for it as the film does not push the subject too heavily, but it certainly has several scenes referring to this subject from the institutional rather than the personal viewpoint.

I do think the film has some problems in finding the right tone and there are segments that do not help progress the story. The whole birthday party segment might be nicely shot but does not really add anything.

All in all it's a good film and it triggered me to learning a bit more about its subject matter.

Inspired by the life of Laure Badufle, the screen-writer, "Return To Seoul" takes us on a journey of regret, anger, sorrow and wondering what could have been. This film puts an exciting spin on the "adoptee wants to find their biological parents" genre with its depiction of all of the stages Freddie, the protagonist, goes through on her journey of reconciling with her biological parents and also finding her own identity. Davy Chou, the director, captures incredibly Freddie's stance on reuniting with her father, which shows that she is torn between wanting to meet him and being angry with him for giving her up in the first place - this ambivalence keeps the whole narrative thrilling in an otherwise slow pace/slow burn picture like this. What I must appreciate is the truly realistic approach to the legislative side of how adoptees can find their parents, that helps the film being believable. Also I completely admired the striking performance of Park Ji-min in the titular role and I couldn't believe that this was actually her first film ever.

I saw this film yesterday and I thought that it's an original and unique film, but somewhat difficult to enjoy. An issue that many people have is that they can't connect to Freddy, the main character, and I get why. Her behaviour is often erratic, and then at times repelling and harsh to others. As she really takes centre stage in this film, it can be hard even for the spectator to put up with her behaviour, even though it is nowhere near outright evil. I thought a bit more about this, and will share my view of it. I won't reveal any detail of the film that you can't find in any generic introduction, so no spoilers, however if you want to watch this and build your own understanding unaffected by my interpretation, you may not want to read on.

I actually know well a person in a similar situation to Freddy, somebody from outside Europe who was adopted to Europe at the age of half a year. There are clear parallels also in behaviour. Being abandoned is a primal experience for adopted children. In these cases an additional thing is that the environment can clearly see that the parents are not the biological parents, and some may think the child "doesn't belong" in the country to where it was adopted. This will add to their experience of being somewhat odd and maybe not really accepted, even though the adoptive parents themselves may not convey anything of that kind. What I see in Freddy is a very strong tendency to keep up and defend her own independence fiercely, particularly if somebody else gets closer. The biological parents have given her away, so it is hard to handle and accept for her if she meets them again and they want some closer contact. I think there is much fear of being abandoned again involved. She may also have tried extra hard to become a proper French person when growing up, potentially facing some prejudice but also encouragement there, and she may identify South Korea as a place that abandoned her, even though there is also curiosity and a certain feeling of connection that she has difficulties allowing for herself. So she develops this rather ambivalent relationship to South Korea and the people there, sometimes behaving extra strange, sometimes getting closer, then again wanting to run away when indeed somebody gets a bit closer. There may also be an element of trying to prove life wrong, trying to show to herself that ultimately she isn't rejected by South Korea and her biological parents, but with a lot of suspicion and self protection at the same time. So thinking about this a bit longer, ultimately her behaviour makes a lot of sense to me, even in its superficial inconsistency.

So after a day I think this is actually very well done and convincing, and I'll give it 8 stars, even though I hadn't felt like that yesterday when the film ended. Note, explanations are not normally given in the film. She does what she does but she really isn't communicative about her motives, so we can only speculate. But it makes all sense to me, given also my personal knowledge of such a person.

Return to Seoul: A stranger in a strange land, adopted as a bay from South Korea and raised in France, 25 year old Freddie (Ji-Min Park) returns. It is a bit of a culture shock but she quickly makes friends. She is persuaded to contact her birth parents through the adoption agency and eventually her father responds. All does not go swimmingly especially as Freddie's free spirit clashes with Korean reticence and patriarchal norms. Freddie herself however is self-centred and even cruel to friends and family. The film captures snapshots her life for her first two weeks as an returnee in Korea, two years later, five years after that and finally a year later, eight years since her first return visit. She develops in some ways, degenerates in others. An interesting tale of loss, acceptance, search for identity and longing on the part of Freddie. Directed and written by Davy Chou. 8/10.