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Return to Seoul
Directed by
Davy Chou
R
2022
1h 59m
Drama
6.9
97%
91%
Add to Watchlist
A twenty-five-year-old French woman returns to Korea, the country she was born in before being adopted by a French couple, for the very first time. She decides to track down her biological parents, but her journey takes a surprising turn.
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Where to Watch Return to Seoul
Amazon Video
Rent $3.99
Buy $12.99
Apple TV
Rent $3.99
Buy $12.99
Fandango At Home
Rent $3.99
Buy $12.99
+3 more
Cast of Return to Seoul
Park Ji-Min
Freddie
Oh Kwang-rok
Father
Guka Han
Tena
Kim Sun-young
Aunt
Yoann Zimmer
Maxime
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Andre
Heo Jin
Grandmother
Emeline Briffaud
Lucie
Lim Cheol-hyun
Kay-Kay
Son Seung-beom
Dongwan
Kim Dong-seok
Jiwan
Cho-woo Choi
Korean Birth Mother
Ioana Luculescu
Romanian Hotel Receptionist
Cha Mi-kyung
The Father's Wife
Nam-Soo Baik
Bus Driver
Gun-woo
Hotel Bartender
Bok-soon Hwang
Neighbor on the Roof
Tae-Seong Jeong
Upscale Restaurant Server
Jinun
Party Friend 1
Young-jae Joe
Party DJ
Eun-sun Jung
Upscale Restaurant Customer
Ae-ri Kim
Girl Who Says Paris Baguette
Diki Kim
Party Friend 2
Joo-yeoh Kim
Hammond Employee in Jeonju
Seong-oh Kim
Restaurant Server in Gunsan
Young-sik Ko
Boy in Leopard Sweatshirt
Jee-Nyang Lee
Party Singer
Joon-ho Lee
Party Wrestler
Myung-hee Chung Lee
Hammond Employee in Seoul
Pyeong-ahn Lee
Hipster Looking For the Bathroom 1
Sang-dae Lee
Taxi Driver (voice)
You-seop Lee
Boy in Leather Jacket
Yeon-ok Lim
Girl Who Says Your Friend Is Original
Bitnara Oh
Half-Sister Cadette
Kug-Hwan Park
Vintage Bar DJ
Ji-hoon Shim
Hipster Looking For the Bathroom 2
Shin Dong-ho
Tena's Father
Hae-in Song
Half-Sister Aimée
Meong-ja Yang
Shoe Saleswoman
Yang-ja Yoon
Old Woman on the Street
Cho Young-Dong
Hammond Old Employee in Jeonju
Davy Chou
Director / Writer
Katia Khazak
Producer
Charlotte Vincent
Producer
Return to Seoul Ratings & Reviews
Kevin Ward
July 3, 2025
Park Ji-min is Freddie, a 25 year old French woman adopted from Korea when she was an infant. Through happenstance or perhaps willful machinations she finds herself back in Seoul seeking out her biological parents. Freddie appears to live her life as a chaos agent, bucking social norms, and constantly doing the opposite of what’s expected of her. Ji-min portrays Freddie with this incredible fuck-the-world kind of energy and piercing stare that serves as your only warning that you may be in the path of destruction. Having had no physical ties to Korea, no knowledge of the customs or culture, and no grasp of the language, Freddie is adrift seemingly searching for answers into her own identity, yet at the same time casting aside every answer she finds. I thought many times that I had this story pegged, but I was wrong every time. I was absolutely riveted by Ji-min’s performance. (Her first, by the way). Highly recommend.
The New Republic
Jasmine Liu
Return to Seoul revels in the possibilities of perpetual drift. Freddie's relationships with her birth parents, her adoptive parents, and herself remain in flux.
Salon.com
Jae-Ha Kim
Don't believe the K-dramas. Look to "Return to Seoul" for a more realistic view on Korean adoptees.
Vanity Fair
Richard Lawson
She's a fascinating creation, prickly and mercurial and, for a spell, immoral. But Chou eventually rounds his film into something compassionate, a bittersweet collage of a young life in flux.
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
In her assured film debut as Freddie, [Ji-Min] Park holds your rapt attention.
Detroit News
Adam Graham
Freddie's journey of self-discovery is at the center of this tale of identity, which continually finds new and surprising ways to reveal itself.
NPR
John Powers
A funny, melancholy, music-laced film that surprised me from start to finish.
Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)
Ty Burr
"Return to Seoul," true to its title, stays locked into the culture clash surrounding its defiant heroine and inside her, and the movie leads up to a moment of reckoning that more than earns its grateful tears.
Chicago Reader
Nina Li Coomes
Heady, searing, strident, and poignant...
Boston Globe
Odie Henderson
The question that arises is whether you will want to follow Freddie for 119 minutes on what is ultimately a fruitless journey. I did not.
FilmWeek (LAist)
Tim Cogshell
Extraordinary in every way.
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Return to Seoul unfolds as one of the rare movies that feels thoughtful and observant every minute, without tidy summations of feeling.
The Atlantic
David Sims
With its ever-evolving protagonist, Return to Seoul defies neat categorization. It's a low-budget character drama with the twists and turns of a high-octane thriller.
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
Park, acting for the first time, has a difficult task and rises to it. Long stretches of her performance are wordless, yet she brings deep empathy to the role.
Arizona Republic
KiMi Robinson
Park conveys her [character's] wild and unpredictable range of emotions with dexterity that you wouldn't expect from a newcomer.
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
A carefully wrought character study of a person who lives life with careless abandon.
Tribune News Service
Katie Walsh
Chou's direction is patient yet energetic, sometimes elliptical and willing to take a beat, reflecting the inner tempo of our protagonist as she traverses - and eventually inhabits - the world of Seoul, rendered here with saturated color and texture.
RogerEbert.com
Monica Castillo
The role is a formidable assignment even for experienced performers, but this intricate character is wonderfully brought to life by first-time actor Park Ji-min.
NPR
Teresa Xie
Return to Seoul is a film that's easy to love: it has a killer soundtrack, a magnetic protagonist, and a gorgeous cinematic backdrop filled with rich colors and empty bottles of Soju.
Rolling Stone
David Fear
The performance is the movie.
Watch Return to Seoul Videos
Return To Seoul (US Trailer 1)
Return To Seoul (US Trailer 1)
Trailer
Return To Seoul: Dancing
Return To Seoul: Dancing
Scene
Return To Seoul: Land Of My Birth
Return To Seoul: Land Of My Birth
Scene
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