Time: 119 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Drug use, offensive language & nudity
Cast:
Ji-Min Park as Frédérique “Freddie” Benoît
Oh Kwang-rok as Freddie’s biological father
Guka Han as Tena
Kim Sun-young as Freddie’s biological aunt
Yoann Zimmer as Maxime
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing as André
Hur Ouk-Sook as Freddie’s biological grandmother
Director: Davy Chou

I didn’t know much about Return to Seoul going in, but I heard some good things about it. Having seen it, it is a great movie and definitely deserving of its praise.

Return to Seoul is a compelling character driven drama about someone finding their own identity and going through an existential and identity crisis. It’s quite interesting with the complexity of the protagonist, and the story is riveting and hard hitting as intended.

Park Ji-min gives an incredible performance in the lead role, especially impressive when considering that this is her first ever acting role. Her character is a South Korean who was adopted by a French couple when she was younger, who is suddenly given a chance to see her biological parents. Park does an excellent job at conveying her character, especially the internal conflict she has and the emotions she’s carrying. It’s a very reserved and subtle performance, but one where you can see a lot of her internal pain on display. The rest of the cast are good too.

The movie is greatly directed by Davy Chou. It is very well shot with some stunning visuals, and also has some very good music choices.

Return to Seoul is a compelling character driven drama, with an excellent lead performance from Park Ji-min. Well worth watching.