Return to Seoul takes us on a coming of age story that occupies the identical form of mould as The Worst Person within the World, a troubled late 20-one thing caught in a mishmash of id and persona – because the movie dares to ask after they’re free of the confines of expectation and weight of household, discovered or in any other case, who’re they? It’s a multi-act construction that takes place over a variety of years as we comply with the self-harmful Freddie, who was given up by her dad and mom and positioned within the care of foster dad and mom in Paris. Returning to the totally different, extra conservative tradition of Seoul – she’s confronted with a reckoning of her dad and mom, her father and her mom, and whether or not or not they’re even prepared to see her not to mention enable her again into her life. And together with her totally different life experiences and the truth that she will’t even communicate the identical language as them, does she even need to attempt to join?
The movie; directed by Davy Chou, acts as a showcase for Park Ji-Min, who you assume has been performing for years earlier than you realise it’s her first efficiency. It’s phenomenal, multi-layered, stuffed with depth; power and vulnerability. Freddie is a fearless power of nature to be reckoned with: the ultimate phase of the movie sees her turn out to be an arms seller after befriending an older man on a tinder date – the boundaries of normality in a tradition that Freddie is totally unaware of are damaged down round her at each flip. After a one-night time stand, she has to brutally let a man down who’s developed emotions for her: it’s clumsy, awkward on either side and he solely will get the message when Freddie out-acts her displeasure by flirting with the DJ. It’s a transparent signal of rebelliousness and reckless abandonment that drives her character as she figures herself out to be a way of self- and will she ever be really proud of who she is?
It’s not an enormous eureka second – life isn’t such and by no means will probably be. She tells a person; one in every of her associates, who she takes to her actual dad and mom that she will and can minimize him out of her life similar to that. And she does – we transfer ahead in time. Her dad and mom, each her foster dad and mom and her actual ones, come out and in of her life in numerous phases of circumstances and we get to see the evolution and influence of getting Freddie return to them has on either side of her households: her adoptive dad and mom again in France; her actual father, a small-city drunkard, and her mom – who desires no contact together with her as to who she is. Her father by no means will get the possibility to redeem himself absolutely as a result of Return to Seoul isn’t that form of film – it’s life, it’s ongoing: there aren’t any straightforward solutions, not really. Added to the truth that there’s a language barrier between the 2 and while her father desires to stay a part of her life – it’s very a lot a double-edged sword that cuts each methods. Freddie brutally tells him on the outset: “He has to understand that I’m French now. I have my family and friends over there. I am not going to live in Korea.”
I like the utilization of music on this movie, and it already has my favorite needle drop of the 12 months – within the aforementioned scene the place Freddie hits on the DJ. It’s an authentic music: sharp, techy and upbeat – in contrast to every other music being performed within the membership on the similar time. Music tells us what the dialogue and screenplay can not: Return to Seoul operates in the identical subject as The Eight Mountains that aired earlier this 12 months – authentic songs going down over solitude to add an additional depth “I never needed anybody, we’re the same…” Jérémie Arcache and Christophe Musset knock it out of the park with the eclectic combine that provides us a vibe you can’t assist however fall in love with – no matter whether or not it’s your style or not.
Chou’s screenplay is eager to keep away from standard strategy to comfortable endings; and in lieu of normality – leads to usually blunt cutaways. We see segments of Freddie’s life introduced as scenes – memorable experiences after the following. A dancer; a partier – an arms seller; pure escalation as you do – despite the fact that Freddie’s way of life might really feel totally totally different from yours it’s one thing that feels relatable for anybody who’s had a journey of determining themselves of their late 20s; the form of messy a part of your life the place your character could also be as shut to absolutely shaped because it’s going to be however you’re not fairly certain what you need to do with it. There’s plenty of false begins, characters launched who we by no means see once more – characters who recur for 2 or extra segments earlier than dipping out, it’s a film that portrays life – in the end, as we all know it. Her loneliness seeps in – it’s emotional and shifting and we continuously surprise when she’ll join together with her dad and mom – tugging at her anxiousness and freedom of expression. This is what makes the movie so good, it’s the conflict of personalities that we see Freddie undertake all through the movie: one second she’s this vigorous, assured persona able to being the literal lifetime of any get together she walks in: the following her façade breaks down. I actually appreciated the course that the movie took together with her father, Oh Kwang-rok in phenomenal kind as at all times, a humble and good-natured man coping with guilt of abandonment regardless of now dwelling with youngsters.
With a lot of her id tied to discovering her dad and mom what occurs when that isn’t the case? What occurs when her mom rejects her? What occurs when there aren’t any solutions? Much of Return to Seoul is constructed round that absence, that belonging, the flexibility to navigate by means of a messy interval of eight years with the identical unmatched confidence of Freddie at her greatest. As issues stand: it would properly simply be *the* movie of the 12 months.
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