The question’s simple enough. “How long do you want to stay?” the hotel clerk asks Freddie, the 25-year-old French citizen of Korean descent checking in at the beginning of the low-keyed marvel that is “Return to Seoul.” Not sure, she says. A couple of weeks, maybe.
Given the name Frédérique by her adoptive French parents, Freddie, played by Park Ji-min in a remarkable feature debut, has returned to Korea more or less on impulse. Across the 8-year span of the storyline, writer-director Davy Chou never seems to be dictating or signposting Freddie’s next move, or change in hairstyle, or emotional frame of mind. Rather, “Return to Seoul” unfolds as one of the rare movies that feels thoughtful and observant every minute, without tidy summations of feeling.
It rightly has been described as an adoption story. Quickly ingratiating herself with the more demure hotel clerk, Tena (Guka Han), roughly her age, it’s clear Freddie has a way with easy and often temporary friendship, her easy-come, easy-go attitude masking a melancholy wariness. The topic of Freddie’s birthparents, whom she has not known since the first month of her life, comes up eventually, in between the new friends’ engagement in Seoul nightlife.
