After Cambodia 2099 at the Directors' Fortnight in 2014, then his first feature, Diamond Island, at Critics' Week in 2016, Franco-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou returned to Cannes this year with his new film Return to Seoul, presented in the Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes 2022 Festival.
The film tells the story of 25-year-old Freddie, who returns to his native South Korea for the first time, either by chance or by a twist of fate - a cancelled flight to Japan. A quest for his origins begins in this foreign land, involving a reunion with his parents.
This quest for self-understanding is common to many Korean adoptees - almost 200,000 Korean children were put up for international adoption after the Korean War in 1953. But Davy Chou manages to draw from this perfectly circumscribed journey through adoption centers, from written requests to follow-ups leading to a meeting with or refusal by the biological parents, a moving film that never lapses into eplorement.
Park Ji-Min, whose first film role ismagnetic and present in almost every shot, is breathtaking in her accuracy and intensity, right down to her silences filled with unspoken words and secrets, and her hard looks, at times bathed in real anger, at other times in great vulnerability.
Full of excesses and neuroses, questionings and fears, she takes us with her to the restaurant, in an opening scene where the soju flows in a Hongsangsoesque way, through the rain-soaked streets of Seoul to the underground depths of Seoul's nightlife , where Davy Chou films with ardor and aestheticism the frenzy of partying and bodies, and where excess is still the order of the day as we await the big day, the first meeting with the biological father - played by Oh KwangRok, often seen in Park Chan-wook films - which obviously doesn't go as planned.
Return to Seoul is one of those remarkable works that will haunt us for a long time. One of our favorites of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, without a doubt.
Opening January 25, 2023
January 2025 cinema releases: Films and times near you
Discover all the films in theaters in January 2025 with showtimes near you. Don't miss a single movie! [Read more]
Dates and Opening Time
From January 25, 2023 to February 14, 2023
January 2025 cinema releases: Films and times near you
