Hot Picks
|
|
|
Retour à Seoul
Return to Seoul
France / Germany / Belgium / South Korea / Romania / Cambodia / Qatar 2022
produced by Katia Khazak, Charlotte Vincent, Christophe Hollebeke (executive), Diana Paroiu (executive) for Aurora Films, Vandertastic Films, Frakas Productions, Merecinema, Anti-Archive, Canal+
directed by Davy Chou
starring Park Ji-min, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young, Yoann Zimmer, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Hur Ouk-Sook, Son Seung-Beom, Kim Dong Seok, Emeline Briffaud, Lim Cheol-Hyun, Régine Vial, Choi Cho-woo, Ioana Luculescu, Baik Nam-Soo, Gun-woo, Hwang Bok-soon, Jeong Tae-Seong, Jinun, Joe Young-jae, Jung Eun-sun, Kim Ae-ri, Kim Diki, Kim Joo-yeoh, Kim Seong-oh, Ko Young-sik, Lee Jee-Nyang, Lee Joon-ho, Lee Myung-hee Chung, Lee Pyeong-ahn, Lee Sang-dae, Lee You-seop, Lim Yeon-ok, Cha Mi-Kyung, Oh Bitnara, Park Kug-Hwan, Shim Ji-hoon, Shin Dong-ho, Song Hae-in, Yang Meong-ja, Yoon Yang-ja, Cho Young-Dong
written by Davy Chou, music by Jérémie Arcache, Christophe Musset
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
Twentysomething Freddie (Park Ji-min) has been born in South Korea, but
has been given up for adoption pretty early in her life, and has grown up
in France with a French family, and identifies as 100% French - so much so
that she doesn't even speak a word of Korean. And yet, for a 14-day
vacation she makes a trip to South Korea - mostly because she couldn't get
a flight to Japan - to pretty much get in touch with her roots, however
diffuse they might be. At the hotel she's staying, she befriends
receptionist Tena (Guka Han), who just happens to speak French, and her
Francophile friend Dongwan (Son Seung-Beom), whom she has a meaningless
affair with. The two talk her into trying to find her parents, which she
at first has little interest in, but ultimately she's taken by curiosity -
and she meets her father (Oh Kwang-ok) ... and finds him overcome by guilt
for giving her away but also trying to make up excuses for his actions -
which at first is sweet, but with time he's overdoing it, sending her
messages in Korean even though he knows he doesn't understand the
language, calling her when drunk, and when she refuses to even reply him
he starts to stalk her, as he wants to include her in his family, making
the Korean girl out of her she has never been. Also, Dongwan soon wants to
marry her and keep her in Korea, so Freddie's happy when her two weeks
stay is over. However, as much as her dad she has never even known has
been crowding her, she's still hurt that her birth mother (Choi Cho-woo)
has never even bothered to reply to her messages, so she returns to South
Korea again and again under different circumstances, trying again and
again to get in touch ... Now this is a film that pretty much
falls into two parts, in more ways than one - the first part is about
Freddie getting in touch with her father, the second is her trying to
track down her mother ... and the first part is great, as it's a proper
narrative with beginning, middle and end, with a overspanning team - the
cultural rift between father and daughter - and it features just the right
balance between comedy and drama to remain engaging throughout, while the
characters are all relatable on either side of the cultural rift. And when
that story comes to a close, the film falls apart, as the second part
shows Freddie just in what seems like random points in her life, with
little connection to one another - or really to the first part of the film
-, with several situation she finds herself in just feeling forced, with
the story all of a sudden lacking proper build-up. So it's a really good
half of a movie - that just would have deserved a much better conclusion.
|
|
|