(spoiler free)
There’s a lot to like about Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul, most notably Park Ji-min’s debut performance as Frédérique “Freddie” Benoit, who visits South Korea to meet her biological parents. Freddie was adopted from a French family and does not speak Korean, thinking her life is in France as her Korean family abandoned her. But after meeting her father (Oh Kwang-rok), something changes inside of Freddie, and the film then cuts to a few years later, where her life takes a drastic sharp turn.
The framing device is simple. Every time something incremental occurs in Freddie’s trip to South Korea, the movie flashes forward and shows her at a different point in her life. It doesn’t always work, but I have to laud the movie for at least trying to approach a coming-of-age tale differently. However, the ending particularly falls flat. There’s a lot the movie asks of us, and it does work sometimes, but there are instances where the emotions don’t connect as much as other parts do. But when the movie took its first sharp turn, I was hooked, and my eyes were immediately glued to the screen.
Every time you think Return to Seoul will bathe in conventionality, it does the exact opposite, and what a thrill it is to watch something that tries to break the mould of traditional dramas. The tonal shifts work surprisingly well because Ji-min is a highly talented actor. She’s able to switch emotions and different personality tones effortlessly. At first, she’s curious to learn about who her family is, but she becomes increasingly frustrated by her father’s behaviour and his family’s efforts to keep her in South Korea. There are many instances during those moments that are quite funny to watch, but Freddie is not finding any closure or amusement in being with her family.
The film immediately changes tone and personality when Freddie herself becomes someone else during its second act. The character sharply evolves, becoming someone else entirely. Ji-min remains strong throughout, even if the supporting performers aren’t as compelling. Kwang-rok tries his best, but the dialogues he’s given are poorly written and clichéd. The same can be said for the other side characters, who don’t hold the same emotion as Ji-min, owning every scene she is in (the entire movie).
It’s a shame that the ending isn’t as strong. And it comes after a particularly effective moment that seems to hamper the emotional tension that it had built. I won’t spoil it, but I was particularly disappointed by how it ended. Many people love it, but it didn’t emotionally click with me as much as I wanted, especially considering how incredible Ji-min is in her lead role.
And she’s the sole reason you should seek out Return to Seoul. Even if it doesn’t always work, Ji-min gives the debut performance for the ages, filled with incredible depth and emotional catharsis that it seems rare to see nowadays. It also adopts a wildly unconventional structure, which sets it apart from most dramas released in this era. I applaud Return to Seoul for trying something different and attempting something that audiences aren’t accustomed to in terms of structure and aesthetic, even if its sharp turns are fairly uneven. Regardless, this is a unique moviegoing experience that you still don’t want to miss.
Written by Maxance Vincent
★★★
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