Return to Seoul (S.Kor)
Freddie is enjoying the good fortunes of youth, enabling her to travel where she will, meet people and see things. I remember those days with fondness. Korean born but put up for adoption at an early age and brought up in France, her plans for a trip to Japan are scuppered by the weather and she diverts to an impromptu visit to Seoul. Fortune finds her mingling with a crowd, including the quiet Tena, who fortunately speaks French and so helps her with the locals. As we join her in the film, Freddie is contemplating her suggestion to visit the Hammond Adoption center to trace her birth parents.
Impulsive and tangential, her heart isn't truly in the escapade; and when she learns her parents are separated and only dad wishes to make contact, her disappointment is lowered further when he turns out to be a needy drunkard.
Feeling the pull of both her biological and adoptive homelands, and the emotional thump of her mother's rejection amplifies Freddie's emotional decision making - leave the disappointment behind and return to the comfort of her old life, or derail her life and stay in the hopes her mother will reply to the request, and not turn out to be another bum.
Park Ji-min who plays Freddie seems to be just barely maintaining composure throughout, you expect her pursed lips to explode with an angry release of frustration at every predicament she finds herself in, and the ups and downs on her journey of self discovery keep the interest going through to the end, sometimes leading to particularly tender and heartfelt moments thanks to a cast underplaying their parts compared to a typical high energy Korean film. 7
Jeanne is fast approaching middle age, single and her life is falling apart. The culmination of a life's work project to find a solution to the oceans microplastics has ended up as a very expensive fish toy at the bottom of the sea. Her reputation in tatters and her frantic attempt to save the project reduced to mocking YouTube videos, she also has to deal with the death of her mother, who threw herself off a bridge in a fit of depression.
Fighting bankruptcy, the only option is to sell her mother's Lisbon apartment, but first Jeanne must get there and expose her already fragile emotions to the stress of a thousand family memories as she chucks her childhood in the skip.
The plane journey gets worse as Jean, a large and oafish petty thief happens to tag along like an unwanted shower curtain salesman, and just doesn't seem to want to go away.
Everybody loves Jeanne plays out unsurprisingly as a 'girl meets idiot who turns out to be actually quite nice actually but is still an idiot but at least he's not an arse' sort of film. There isn't any plot twists here, but it is very enjoyable. It's played as a romcom of sorts but finds time to meditate on Jeanne's journey of healing as she reconciles her mixed feelings for her mother, who regularly berated Jeanne and her brother at least as much as she loved them; memories of childhood handled tenderly mix with Jeanne's inner monologue, which, much like the excellent BoJack Horseman episode 'stupid piece of shit' - which could so easily have been a direct inspiration - shows her inner insecurities and suggestions that she too might suffer from the same depression that plagued the mind of her mother. It's a beautiful, tender and funny film and one I would really recommend - and given my relationship with pretentious French films in the past, who'd have predicted that with a French romcom? 8
My Small Land (Jpn)
I originally wanted to see the Korean thriller Confession, but it had sold out so I'm assuming it was as good as Jeanne, which I managed to wangle the last ticket for.
My backup choice had some parallels to Return to Seoul, in that it dealt with a young girl brought up in a country other than her birth one. In this case, the geography is reversed, with young Kurdish teen Sarya, fleeing the middle east with her family after her father is wanted for taking part in an illegal demonstration, and finding refuge in Japan. For a while they forge an existence with a similar group of Kurds in Saitama; Sarya has a promising school record, the beginnings of a romance with a work mate and her aims to become a teacher look on track. But it starts to fall apart with the news their refugee status has been rejected and their visas are taken away. With temporary status they can't work or travel, and with their meager savings, their landlord starts to run low on charity. As with Jeanne it didn't have any major twists and turns, and whereas the earlier film had a pleasing mix of humour and emotional clout, My Small Land only has the latter. That's not to say it was only half as enjoyable, but the heavy scenes had to work harder to keep up. Fortunately, the acting, especially by Lina Arashi playing the young lead with maturity beyond her years helps to carry this off. It did meander a little and may not reach the sort of satisfying conclusion some may wish for, but I left with a hopeful warmth for the family that all would be well. 7
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