[Review] 'Return to Seoul' and Korean identity
We take a deeper look into the cinematic journey of self-discovery and maturity, set against the colourful and energetic backdrop of Seoul.
Return to Seoul (2022). Image: Sony Picture Classics.
Introducing, Freddie
We meet the protagonist Freddie (played by Park Ji-min) in 2014 arriving at a guesthouse in Seoul, her trip and intentions remain unexplained for now. When handing over her passport, the receptionist comments on her French citizenship — emphasising her fraught relationship with her identity.
During the course of the next eight years we follow Freddie on her journey, navigating the customs and traditional ideals of Korea, finding her biological parents, and self-discovery. Aged 25 years old, she lives her life for the moment, seeking instant gratification and self-indulgence.
Despite her immaturity and selfishness, she begins her investigations with the adoption agency to find her biological parents. Her biological father (played by Oh Kwang-rok) immediately responds to her request to meet. In this role, Oh Kwang-rok does an excellent job of showing viewers the very complicated emotions of a parent racked with guilt and regret, desperate to make amends for his past mistake of sending his first born daughter away.
They meet in the father’s hometown of Gunsan, where Freddie spends a few nights at his family home, where he now lives with his wife, two daughters, and his mother, the matriarch of the family. The clash of cultures is immediately felt by the audience.
Return to Seoul (2022). Image: Sony Picture Classics.
The family is overly emotional and sentimental, almost begging for forgiveness. Freddie is in shock, still processing the events. She doesn’t know how to react or how to feel.
Her father’s attempts to build a relationship are met with indifference; the more she ignores and distances herself from him, the more obsessive he becomes.
On further inspection it seems Freddie wasn’t truly mentally prepared to meet her parents. Though immature, her spontaneous decision to take a flight to Seoul, however, seems a subconscious decision to follow the path back to her roots.
Understanding adoption in Korea
Korea’s history of international adoption is a complicated and emotive subject interwoven into the fabric of the Korean War. According to Kaian, over the course of several decades, ‘South Korea became the largest supplier of children to developed countries in the world’.
Under the guise and notion of ‘developed countries’ it was often accepted that children were better off as an adoptee than to simply survive in South Korea. Many of the mothers were unwed and single parents, so the stigma and taboo of this in the previous decades would have been a contributing factor to this decision.
Return to Seoul (2022). Image: Sony Picture Classics.
The film’s largely absent and elusive ‘mother’ might also add to the narrative of the silenced and forgotten women that lived through this turbulent period. These women would have been going through their own internal struggles between the achingly powerful force of maternal instincts and the absolute conformity of society and culture norms, which would have been devastating to themselves and their families just for bearing a child out of wedlock.
Freddie’s biological mother does not respond to the adoption agency's request for a meeting. The agency follows the strict rules about contacting the parent and a telegram is limited to three per year, otherwise it is considered harassment. The rejection sends Freddie into a spiral of destructive behaviour fuelled by alcohol and the desperate need to escape reality.
Heritage and identity
Freddie is told multiple times that she has a very pure Korean face, a comment that is met with confusion. Her nationality is French but she doesn’t look typically French. She looks Korean but has no idea what this means.
This is further reinforced at the fateful dinner with her biological father and his family, where she is offered opinions and advice that was not requested. “You would settle better if you learnt Korean.” “We can help get you matched up with a husband.” We learn that this family is intent on keeping the social norms of Korean conservatism and traditions.
Rather than get to know Freddie as a fully grown adult ,including her foreign upbringing, the family tries to make her fit into the Korean societal and accepted roles for a woman her age. Marriage is a large part of that which does not sit well with our free spirited protagonist.
Return to Seoul (2022). Image: Sony Picture Classics.
The irony of Freddie being pressured into marriage is not lost on the viewers, as her own birth occurred out of wedlock. It feels as though she is the redemption that the father needs for his past mistakes.
Growing to accept
As we continue to see Freddie grow up in years, we slowly see maturity creep in, but theme of distance within her relationships continues. Her self-imposed barriers keep her apart from the world. She is successful in her career and appears to have a stable relationship, but we can see and almost feel that she is not quite settled.
She requests a further meeting with her father a few years later and this time it is a little more comfortable as Freddie has learnt some Korean and has a better understanding of the culture. She is more accepting of her father’s time and his guilt but we see that she is still not quite content. The gap is too great and damage far too deep to be repaired.
Return to Seoul (2022). Image: Sony Picture Classics.
She cannot help but feel rejected by the Korean side, where she can glimpse at what her life could have turned out like, as shown by her visit to Gunsan. The fact remains, she was given to the adoption agency and proceeded to leave Korea.
A glimpse into cultural alienation
Freddie is stuck in a place where she doesn’t really fit into a country that matches her appearance. Whilst she is from a loving adoptive family, she does not feel completely accepted in France either. Her parents cannot relate to her emotions but equally she feels so far removed from a place where everyone looks like her but is not like her in their actions and cultural traditions.
Whilst we follow her through various years, with each time period she is slightly different. She is trying to reinvent herself to find out what she needs and who she is, following each path until she finds one that fits.
‘Return to Seoul’ is an insightful look at identity, belonging, and the power of our ancestry which continues to shape people despite the physical and cultural distances that separate us.
Edited by Gabii Rayner and Chelsea Cheetham.
