Film Review: RETURN TO SEOUL (2022): Park Ji-Min Succeeds in a Leading Role in a Complex but Somewhat Incomplete Dramatic Film

Return to Seoul Review

Return to Seoul (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Davy Chou and starring Park Ji-Min, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young, Yoann Zimmer and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing.

In Davy Chou’s thematically complex new drama, Return to Seoul,  Park Ji-Min shines playing a 25-year old woman named Frederique Benoit who was adopted as a baby and has spent a large portion of her life in France. When she returns to Korea, she opens up a can of worms, so to say, when she searches for her biological parents. She seems to search for her true parents in order to fulfill some inner curiosity that is hard to pinpoint. It’s hard to decipher what, exactly, Frederique is going through during much of the early stages of Return to Seoul. However, by the time the movie reaches its emotional but uncertain conclusion, there is a tremendous character transformation which Ji-Min undergoes seamlessly through her fantastic performance here.

Frederique is known simply as Freddie for much of the picture. She’s distant and aloof even though she associates with a friend named Tena (Guka Han). Freddie and Tena hang out together and have fun with a group of young people early in the film. When Freddie sleeps with a seemingly nice guy she meets, she pushes him away later on after just using him for sexual relations. Freddie doesn’t seem to know what she truly wants and who can blame her for being young and confused at that age given her background?

Tena is partially responsible for Freddie moving forward in a search to locate her biological parents. She discovers her father through the adoption agency. He’s played with terrific intensity by Oh Kwang-Rok. Although Frederique needs the help of her aunt (Kim Sun-young) to translate what her dad is saying in Korean, it’s easy to understand what Freddie is going through. The dad just wants to do good by the now grown daughter that he gave up. He even buys Freddie a pair of shoes which don’t really interest Freddie but it’s a generous gesture, nevertheless.

The plot thickens as the father wants to give Freddie a better life and he offers her a place to live by suggesting she stay with him and his family. The dad has a new family of his own but is ready to welcome Freddie into his life with open arms. This father gets a little aggressive with the daughter he gave up, however, as he constantly contacts her via text messages after bouts of drinking.

Years pass and Freddie eventually has a boyfriend named Maxime (Yoann Zimmer). She is an arms dealer by trade thanks to her previous association with an older gentleman named Andre (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing). Watch the scene where Freddie reunites with her father and has to tell him what she does for a living. It’s a subtle scene but it’s done remarkably well as Freddie’s family tries to accept what they are being told even though it seems a little extreme.

Return to Seoul takes a 180 degree turn towards the ending scenes as, yes, as you may have expected, Freddie gets the news that, perhaps, her birth mother may be interested in meeting with her. This heart-wrenching revelation leads the picture to an ambiguous conclusion which feels like it leaves a lot up in the air. We don’t have any solid answers at the conclusion of the picture in regard to what Freddie will want to do with her life going forward. That remains a problem with this otherwise extremely well made picture.

With that being said, Park Ji-Min and Oh Kwang-Rok are excellent in the movie. Park Ji-Min makes us watch her character, Freddie, with an open heart and it’s impossible not to become immersed in her life as she makes all the wrong choices in order to find some sort of closure in terms of both her wants and her needs. Oh Kwang-Rok as the passionate dad is outstanding and his scenes with Park Ji-Min are believable and very interesting. We often wonder if Freddie will just walk away from him entirely but something seems to keep bringing them back together for a little while at least.

Davy Chou’s film is fearless. There are scenes where Park Ji-Min’s character comes to life in a club where she looks completely different than she does when we first meet her. She experiences sexuality but has a sensitivity about her that keeps her grounded in her search to discover her true heritage. Park Ji-Min holds the movie together even when we’re not sure where Chou is taking us from a cinematic standpoint.

Return to Seoul is a good film. It lacks a compelling conclusion but, perhaps, there is no satisfying conclusion to this particular story. The major plot point at the end revolves around a contact e-mail address that Freddie receives from a key character. I’m not sure I bought this plot development. It lacks a certain level of plausibility after some of the powerful scenes that precede it.

Nevertheless, Park Ji-Min and Kwang Rok are fabulous with Guka Han adding a sense of realism to her own character as she tries to sugar coat certain aspects of Freddie’s hard nosed personality. There’s no sugar coating the fact that Return to Seoul is quite ambiguous at the film’s conclusion. But, because of Park Ji-Min’s complex performance, a little of that ambiguity will help lead viewers to draw their own conclusions about what will happen after the end credits roll.

Rating: 7.5/10

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