Return to Seoul’: Film Review | Cannes 2022
Frédérique Benoît, aka Freddie, is a character who holds everyone at arm’s length, including the audience.
She’s unreasonably self-impressed, condescending and often flat-out cruel.
There are signs of sincere searching amid all the acting out,
but every step forward seems to be followed by several slides back.
That the story of someone so off-putting climaxes in a moment as profound
and moving as the penultimate scene of
Return to Seoul
speaks
the subtle power of writer-director Davy Chou’s storytelling and the portrayal
Park Ji-Min, a visual artist making a strong impression in her first screen role.
Chou’s two previous feature-length films are the Cambodia-set documentary
Golden Slumbers
and the narrative feature
Diamond Island
,