Return to Seoul

Return to Seoul is a quietly moving drama, written and directed by Davy Chou, a Cambodian/French filmmaker. It runs through a few years in the life of Freddie, played by 'plastic artist', Park Ji-Min. She's Korean by birth but was adopted out to a French family as a baby and at the start of the film, finds herself back in Seoul. On the face of it, she's there simply because a flight to Tokyo was cancelled, but we get an inkling that the desire to reconnect with her biological parents is working its way to primacy. Freddie can't speak Korean when she first arrives so she latches onto a young woman who works in the guest house she's staying at, Tena (Guka Han). The relationship is a curious one - polite, caring Tena seems to find chaotic Freddie fun....until she doesn't. At one point, during a spiteful night out, Tena tells her something like, "You're the saddest person I've ever met" and this 'slash and burn' style threatens to derail any bonds she may want to foster.

The film jumps forward years at a time and in each segment Freddie changes in one way or another - new boyfriend, more hectic lifestyle, new job, etc. Underlying all this flux is the nagging emptiness of absent parents, there, but not available. Like most people, I wasn't adopted and so I'll never know how those who were feel, but I reckon this film gets as close as any to illustrating the emotional turmoil involved. Freddie is all over the place, fun and energetic one minute, destructive and cold the next. If we weren't privy to her background, we'd likely find her a pain in the arse, or worse. Yet, her snarky, pernicious behaviour comes across as completely understandable. Ji-Min hasn't acted in a film before and it shows in her unfettered, naturalistic performance. Her glares are priceless.

There is a lot going on in the film, much of it elliptical, leaving some details for us to winkle out. This comfortable attitude to the narrative is possibly due to the director's intimacy with the story. Chou has said he developed this idea when a friend of his told him about her adoption, while they were attending the Busan Film Festival together. It seems some of the awkward family moments in the film mirrored their reality, hence the authenticity and at times, the oddly tense humour. Chou lets a few scenes run a bit long but I wouldn't say there was much wastage here, everything we see is required to progress the story, or more saliently, Freddie's arc. She's the focus, and so is the whole international adoption system by extension.

Return to Seoul plays at the Somerville Auditorium at UWA for the Perth Festival from Dec 12 - 18.

See also:

Some bits reminded me of Julia Ducournau's, Titane (2021), especially an extended dance scene. There were also very slight hints of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria (2021), which played at last year's Perth Fest.