Synopsis
After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.
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Cast
- Park Ji-minFreddie
- Oh Kwang-rokFather
- Guka HanTena
- Kim Sun-youngAunt
- Yoann ZimmerMaxime
- Louis-Do de LencquesaingAndre
- Heo JinGrandmother
- Emeline BriffaudLucie
- Lim Cheol-hyunKay-Kay
- Son Seung-beomDongwan
Recommendations
- 91
IndieWire
It’s the rare movie that can drop a long-take dance sequence into the middle of a pressing conversation without seeming the least bit mannered or aloof; the rare movie that only feels more honest as a result of its most flamboyant choices, and only makes its heroine more empathetic as a result of how she pushes other people away. - 91
Collider
Return to Seoul is a powerful and quietly staggering work, and one of the most engrossing films of the year. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
That the story of someone so off-putting climaxes in a moment as profound and moving as the penultimate scene of Return to Seoul speaks to the subtle power of writer-director Davy Chou’s storytelling and the portrayal by Park Ji-Min, a visual artist making a strong impression in her first screen role. - 80
Screen Daily
Like its central character, this film is unconventional, and at times abrasive, but it has a seductive, searching quality and a swell of melancholy which makes for an engaging, if unpredictable journey. - 80
Variety
While Chou’s elliptical screenplay gently explodes many preconceived assumptions about the effects of adoption on adoptees, it is too clear-sighted to ignore the fact that whether biology affects identity or not, the mere possibility that such a link exists could exert a powerful attraction on a searching spirit not quite sure what it is searching for. - 75
Slant Magazine
Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul quickly blooms as a study in contrasts, sublimely juxtaposing character and culture.
