6.2
After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.
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
Director, Writer
Davy Chou
Adaptation
Im Na-moo
Script Consultant
Laure Badufle
May 15, 2023
6
I think I may have warmed to this film better had I not taken an instant dislike to "Freddie" (Park Ji-min). Now it's certainly a testament to this actor that she is able to successfully - and pretty immediately - engender a sense that her character is a rather selfish, manipulative and unpleasant individual; but I'm afraid I struggled to remain engaged as her troubled story of adoption and of her re-introduction to her birth family is played out over the next two hours. "Freddie" appears to have been happily brought up by a couple in France, so her increasingly thoughtless behaviour doesn't really have an anchor - and as we progress and she becomes more obnoxious - as exemplified by her final scene in the car with poor old "Maxime" (Yoann Zimmer) - I found the story has just about run out of merit. The acting is generally good. The efforts from her slightly dipso dad (Oh Kwang-rok) is convincing as he has to reconcile the discovery of his long-lost daughter with his dependency on the bottle and her own pretty obvious disdain for the man. It also offers us quite an interesting insight into just how adoptions worked as the decline of the French colonial system in post-war Korea led to many children being offered by parents who hoped that a childhood and education in France would offer greater opportunity, but again with "Freddie" that isn't really developed. What has turned her into this rather objectionable person is rather left aside. It has an element of "be careful what you wish for" to it, and is, at times, an interesting observation on the stresses of the post-adoption processes but I just didn't like or care about her and so my enthusiasm just waned.