Return To Seoul (NC16)

119 minutes, opens on Thursday exclusively at The Projector
4 stars

The story: A South Korean adoptee raised in France, 25-year-old Frederique Benoit or Freddie (Park Ji-min) seeks out her biological parents while on an impromptu two-week visit to her birth country.

There are homecoming tales. And then there is Cambodian-French writer-director Davy Chou’s startlingly unpredictable Return To Seoul.

Freddie is a character too rash and bumptious for any of such stories’ cosy reconciliation. She speaks no Korean, reminding everyone she is a Westerner, and chugs soju in brazen disregard for local decorum.

The adoption agency easily tracks down her dad, a repairman played by veteran actor Oh Kwang-rok. He is drunk and weepy with regret, which majorly puts her off.

The mother (Choi Cho-woo), on the other hand, wants no contact. Freddie’s feelings of abandonment have left a void where her heart should be, and she is a cold, cruel creature, rebuffing her father and telling a boyfriend, “I could wipe you from my life with a snap of my fingers”.

But just you try looking away, as Freddie is magnetic. How can this astonishing performance possibly be visual artist Park’s acting debut?

The narrative time-jumps unannounced over a span of seven years to check in on her emotional state as she dramatically changes hairstyles, lovers and jobs, pivoting along the way from social escort to arms dealer.

She is a lost soul, unmoored, neither French nor Korean, never knowing who she is or what it is she is searching for.

And the movie is a discomfiting yet enthralling watch because you never know where it is taking you. Set to a woozy score, it sweeps you up in Freddie’s restless and enigmatic journey.

Hot take: This nuanced drama of one woman’s identity crisis will surprise and stay with you.

Ghosted (PG)

116 minutes, streaming on Apple TV+
2 stars

The story: Chris Evans stars opposite Ana de Armas as wholesome farm boy Cole and his new love Sadie, an art curator who, to his shock, is really an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. He should have researched James Bond movie No Time To Die (2021) before dating her.

Passing off Evans as an unlucky-in-love square is the single biggest, if unintended laugh, in Ghosted.

The comedy in this action-comedy is otherwise cartoon villains chasing Cole around to try killing him in formulaic shoot-outs and explosions.

To backtrack: Cole and Sadie have a meet-cute at a Washington flea market, followed by a day of swoony romance. And then she ghosts him, ignoring his messages. She is in London on business, so he flies there to surprise her, whereupon he discovers she is a super-spy as he lands smack in her deadly mission to unlock a bio-weapon.

Tim Blake Nelson plays the European arms broker who abducts him in a case of mistaken identity, and tortures him with an insect and a ridiculous accent.

Adrien Brody is another baddie. From Pakistan to Afghanistan to back in the United States, Sadie helps Cole repel a carousel of bounty hunters, each a wacky celebrity cameo as if identifying the famous faces constituted humour.

The bickering couple’s star chemistry is distracting enough to make their stale and witless globe-trotting adventure an undemanding diversion. But this is a hack job by British director Dexter Fletcher of the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Cole is aggrieved that Sadie lied about her profession. “Unbelievable,” he eye-rolls.

Sadie is annoyed at having to repeatedly rescue Cole. “Unbelievable,” she fumes.

Such is how the movie wastes the smoking-hot pair. Unbelievable.

Hot take: Two attractive stars are put through the motions as their lazy romcom paints by numbers.