Film

Return to Seoul

Name: Return to Seoul
Genre: Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Park Ji-min, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young, Yoann Zimmer

Coming-of-age

Return to Seoul is a lucid, unsentimental portrait of identity in flux. Freddie, adopted from Korea and raised in France, returns to her birthplace as an adult and discovers that homecoming isn't healing—it's messier, funnier, and far more human than that. Davy Chou's film trusts you to sit with ambiguity.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to slow character studies where a prickly, unpredictable protagonist's choices matter more than plot, and you don't mind being kept at an uncomfortable distance from her.

Skip it if you want a clear emotional arc or a warm, reassuring story; its restless, often abrasive central figure can feel frustrating to spend two hours with, and it rarely explains itself.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of patient, observational scenes that linger on awkward silences and unresolved moods, with long stretches where little appears to happen.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Aftersun2022

A father-daughter trip becomes a meditation on what we can't say to each other. Like Return to Seoul, it finds profound intimacy in small silences and the space between people who love each other but don't quite connect.

But Very quiet and contemplative. If you need a clear emotional arc or resolution, the film's deliberate vagueness may frustrate you.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence2014

Roy Andersson's deadpan comedy finds humanity in strangeness and disconnection. Both films have an off-kilter view of the world and refuse to sentimentalise their characters' loneliness.

But Deliberately absurdist and formally strange. The humour is dry enough to be invisible if you're not attuned to it.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence poster

Climax2018

Gaspar Noé's film about a dance troupe spiralling into chaos has the same unflinching eye for how quickly intimacy can curdle. Both embrace discomfort as a form of honesty.

But Viscerally dark and at times disturbing. It doesn't offer catharsis, and some viewers find that exhausting rather than clarifying.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Return to Seoul

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Boiling Point2021

Formal intensity as emotional language; the body under pressure as a way of understanding self.

A single take through a London restaurant kitchen during service—controlled chaos, pressure, impossible relationships. The connection: both films use formal constraint to capture how identity fractures under stress, and both trust their audience to stay present without explanation.

But Literally one unbroken take. If you find that gimmicky or exhausting, it will test your patience. Also brutally loud in places.

We Are Little Zombies2019

Makoto Nagahisa's film about grief-stricken teenagers uses bright, chaotic style to process trauma. Like Return to Seoul, it trusts young people to be complicated and refuses easy answers.

But Visually very busy and tonally uneven. The style can feel like style for its own sake, and the jumps between modes of feeling may feel manipulative.

Minding the Gap2018

Bing Liu's documentary follows three skateboarders across years, letting their lives unfold without neat conclusions. It shares Return to Seoul's patience with contradiction and incomplete self-knowledge.

But A real documentary, not a narrative—it moves at its own pace and some threads never resolve. Requires you to sit with uncertainty.

The Farewell2019

Lulu Wang's film about a Chinese-American woman returning home captures the same tension between cultural belonging and estrangement, with dark humour holding everything together.

But More conventionally warm than Return to Seoul. If you're looking for that film's cool, unsettling clarity, this one's more forgiving.

Happy as Lazzaro2018

Alice Rohrwacher's fable about a peasant boy has a similar refusal to explain its world or make it comprehensible. Both films treat their protagonists with affection and bewilderment in equal measure.

But Structurally unconventional and occasionally surreal. If you need the film to establish clear rules, you'll be adrift.

Petite Maman2021

Céline Sciamma's film about a girl meeting her mother as a child explores identity and time with grace. Like Return to Seoul, it's intimate and strange without feeling like it's trying too hard.

But Very gentle and small-scale. The magical element is subtle to the point of being almost invisible, which some viewers find slight.

The Eternal Memory2023

Both explore identity as unstable and unrecoverable; both refuse the comfort of resolution.

An Argentine documentary about a couple—one living with dementia—and how memory and identity dissolve. It's radically unsentimental about love and loss, finding strange beauty in what remains when the past becomes unreachable.

But Not a narrative film—it moves at documentary pace and asks a lot of patience. Some will find it too raw; others will feel it's grief tourism.

The Souvenir2019

Both use formal distance to convey emotional confusion; both refuse to explain or judge their characters.

Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical film about a film student's relationship with an older man is oblique and impressionistic—you piece together what's happening from fragments. Like Return to Seoul, it's alive to how little we understand about people we're close to, even in the moment.

But Deliberately obscure and elliptical. Plot is secondary to mood, and some viewers find that precious rather than profound.