RETURN TO SEOUL
DIRECTOR: davy chou
116 MINS, france, Germany, Belgium, Cambodia, Qatar, 2022, SUBTITLED
Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Cannes International Film Festival 2022
The screening will be introduced by Adelaide Kane (the Young Critics & Young Irish Film Makers organisations)
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IFI DUBLIN
25 year-old French-Korean woman, Frédérique Benoît, aka Freddie, has lived in France all her life having been adopted at an early age. Now she finds herself journeying in Seoul, her first time in her native land, in a culture and a language she doesn’t know. She befriends Tena and Dongwan and on their advice seeks help from the international adoption centre, precipitating a chaotic eight year life-changing journey of self-discovery, and reconciliation with her birth parents.
French-Cambodian writer-director Davy Chou’s haunting, nuanced Return to Seoul is loosely based on a friend’s personal story, and his direction echoes Hou Hsiao-hsien in its raw energy and focus on impulses and deep emotions. Park Ji-Min (a visual artist without any previous acting experience) is magnetic as Freddie – her intuitive, dazzling presence delivers a raw and emotional portrait of a restless, impulsive young woman.
NOTES BY MARIE-PIERRE RICHARD
