Screened as part of NZIFF 2022

Return to Seoul 2022

Retour à Séoul

Directed by Davy Chou

A French-Korean adoptee returns to Seoul, a home she has never known, and over the course of several visits begins to process her complicated relationship with her biological family and country of birth.

France In English, French and Korean with English subtitles
119 minutes DCP

Rent

Director, Screenplay

Producers

Charlotte Vincent
,
Katia Khazak

Cinematography

Thomas Favel

Editor

Dounia Sichov

Production designers

Shin Bo-koung
,
Choi Chi-youl

Costume designers

Claire Dubien
,
Yi Choong-yun

Music

Jérémie Arcache
,
Christophe Musset

Cast

Park Ji-min (Freddie)
,
Oh Kwang-rok (father)
,
Guka Han (Tena)
,
Kim Sun-young (aunt)
,
Yoann Zimmer (Maxime)
,
Louis Do De Lencquesaing (André)
,
Hur Ouk-sook (grandmother)
,
Emeline Briffaud (Lucie)
,
Lim Cheol-hyun (Kay-Kay)
,
Son Seung-beom (Dongwan)
,
Kim Dong-seok (Jiwan)

Festivals

Cannes (Un Certain Regard)
,
Sydney 2022

Elsewhere

“Born in Korea and adopted as a baby by a French couple, 25-year-old Freddie (Park Ji-min) decides on a whim to fly to Seoul, with the half-formed idea of reconnecting with her roots in this intriguing and mercurial character study. But it soon becomes clear that Freddie’s mission to learn about Korean culture is a two-way journey: she is an agent of chaos who delights in the collision between Korean propriety and her own taste for anarchy and inhibition. Over the course of nearly a decade and a series of awkward meetings with her biological father and, eventually, her mother, Freddie’s complicated relationship with the country of her birth, and her adopted status, evolves, but never fully resolves…

This is French-Cambodian director Davy Chou’s second feature to screen at Cannes… 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… A lot rests on the shoulders of non-professional actress Park, who delivers in spades. She fully inhabits the skin of Freddie, a free spirit who hides her vulnerability and anger behind a derisive smile and layers of rabble-rousing provocation.” — Wendy Ide, Screendaily