It happens every day in real life: adopted children grow up, get curious, and seek out their biological parents. Sometimes the results are heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking. Either way, the heart is usually involved. In Return to Seoul, this kind of set up is but one strand in the life of a complicated and not always lovable character.
Ji-Min Park plays Frédérique “Freddie” Benoît, adopted as a baby by a French couple and raised in Paris. Now at the age of 24, she finds herself in Seoul, alone and curious about her biological roots. It won’t be easy – she doesn’t even speak Korean, and her personal; sensibilities are decidedly French.
At the hotel where she first checks in, the desk clerk, as it happens, is a native Korean who also speaks French. So, the adventure begins. Over the next two hours, eight years in Freddie’s life will go by with several life changes and a few trips back and forth from Paris to Seoul.
I want to only brush over the plot points in a cursory way, because the pleasure of watching this film by French-Cambodian director Davy Chou, is watching it unfold in a gradual, deliberate way – free of melodrama and, it must be said, free of any hint of cheap sentimentality.
Freddie will make friends, have promiscuous sex, drink like a fish, and toss simpering men aside like candy wrappers. She will encounter adoption agency bureaucracy, but also kind people who want to help her connect with her birth parents.
Again, connecting with blood relatives whom you don’t really know can go in unpredictable directions and that is the case here. This isn’t a Hallmark Channel movie. One must stay in the passenger seat and take the ride, expecting only for an interesting story to be told in an interesting way – that’s about as good as films get, I think.
About about Park: she is a French artist and sculptor who was not a professional actor. She reportedly demanded many conditions and secured absolute collaboration from Chou before agreeing to the role. The result is a shockingly naturalistic performance that feels like a real, lived-in, character who often holds others at arm’s length, can be unpredictable, moody and uncooperative.
And yet, we very much care about Freddie and her journey. Yep, the film is an Art House character study, and I say that as a high compliment. The cast includes actors far more seasoned than Park, but everything meshes together organically onscreen.
As of this writing, Return to Seoul has been named Best Film of the Year by the Boston Society of Film Critics, and has won numerous festival awards. While it is not my personal favorite (more on that in a future post) I liked it very much and count on me to bang the drum loudly for Ji-Min Park’s kick ass performance.
Return to Seoul | in French, English and Korean | Rated R | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
