Return to Seoul’: Film Review | Cannes 2022

Frédérique Benoît, aka Freddie, is a character who holds everyone at arm’s length, including the audience.

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She’s unreasonably self-impressed, condescending and often flat-out cruel.

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There are signs of sincere searching amid all the acting out,

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but every step forward seems to be followed by several slides back.

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That the story of someone so off-putting climaxes in a moment as profound

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and moving as the penultimate scene of Return to Seoul speaks

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the subtle power of writer-director Davy Chou’s storytelling and the portrayal

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Park Ji-Min, a visual artist making a strong impression in her first screen role.

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Chou’s two previous feature-length films are the Cambodia-set documentary Golden Slumbers and the narrative feature Diamond Island,

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