A One Mann’s Movies review of “Return to Seoul” (2023).
Original title: Retour à Séoul
I often comment how subtitled films tend to send a large proportion of cinema-goers stampeding for the exit. “Return to Seoul” will likely send them over the edge, since it is a vibrant mix of subtitled French, subtitled Korean and some spoken English!
It’s a difficult film to categorise, and for me to rate. It’s one of those “good” films that is quite difficult to warm to.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Frédérique (“Freddie”) Benoît was adopted as a Korean baby by a French couple and now finds herself back in Seoul with the option of tracking down her birth-parents. But will fitting these missing jigsaw pieces of her life bring her comfort or not?
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Brief drug misuse”. This is a curiously curt BBFC summary, and indeed the “drug use” is almost subliminally “brief”. The film feels a bit over-rated to me, and might have got away with a “12”, since the use of drugs, sex and alcohol is a suitably cautionary tale.).
Talent:
Starring: Park Ji-min, Guka Han, Oh Kwang-rok, Kim Sun-young, Son Seung-Beom.
Directed by: Davy Chou.
Written by: Davy Chou (inspired by the life story of Laure Badufle).
Twitter Handle: #ReturnToSeoul; #RetouràSéoul.
27 and all grown-up now? Apparently not. Park Ji-min as Freddie. (Source: MUBI)
“Return to Seoul” Review:
Positives:
- The intelligent script (by director Davy Chou) is based on the life story of Laure Badufle and it has a feel of being naturalistic and ‘true’. There is an early analogy about the fear of playing a new piece of sheet music, and you feel that Freddie has never taken that leap. She is always running away from situations or discussions she is uncomfortable with, jumping up mid conversation with her friends Tena (a wonderfully confused Guka Han) and Dong-wan (Son Seung-Beom) to madly dance to a DJ’s tune.
- And Freddie is a fascinating (and often infuriating) character. Wild, anarchic, apparently bisexual and bohemian, she uses sex, drugs and alcohol as distractions. The film flashes forwards at various points, and you think “Ah, now Freddie has grown-up and matured a bit”. But then the film throws that back in your face. “Seoul is toxic for me” she says to her French boyfriend (Yoann Zimmer) before irrationally proving the point by caustically dumping him and going on a bender.
- The script is quite difficult to follow at times, which makes this a challenging watch. You have to fill in the gaps in Freddie’s story yourself each time we jump forwards a few years. I liked that. And you have to pay attention: the final scene beautifully plays out (literally) the throwaway analogy made earlier in the film.
- Park Ji-min does an extraordinary job in the leading role of the damaged, and damaging, twenty-something. This is, amazingly, her debut film performance.
Negatives:
- There are a few moments where the direction went off the rails a bit and I got bored.
- A wild dance by Freddie should have lasted about 20 seconds to make the point: instead if goes on for (what feels like) a couple of minutes.
- There seem to be some ‘jumps’ in the story that confused me. At one point Freddie is refusing to stay that night at a house; then she is suddenly staying for three nights.
- Given that Freddie is such a frustrating character, it’s quite difficult to really ‘like’ this film.
Summary Thoughts on “Return to Seoul”
This feels like a ‘good film’ with fine acting performances, generally good direction and a very clever and intricate script. But it’s also a challenging watch and – like the recent “God’s Creatures” – I came out of it thinking “did I really enjoy that one or not”? But overall I’m glad I saw it, and my 3.5/5 rating reflects that balance between it ‘being good’ without it necessarily being a ‘fun watch’.
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Trailer for “Return to Seoul”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaPiUlPpRWE .
