Park Ji-Min’s performance in “Return to Seoul” is fearless in a way that’s difficult for me to wrap my head around.

Beautiful. Devastating.

In my conservatory days, I saw Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman”, at London’s National Theatre. Nonplussed, post-performance, I asked one of my instructors how (Ibsen notwithstanding) a show lead by the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins, could have fallen so flat.

My instructor, who shall remain nameless—against the possibility that either of these Dames (literal) have a hit squad—replied, “Because neither of them were willing to be ugly.”

Park Ji-Min, by contrast, gets as ugly as ugly comes. And—somehow—as impossibly beautiful.

She’s joy and sex and heartbreak and cruelty and innocence—all ever-present, and clawing for supremacy.

And Davy Chou…

It’s difficult to parse out precisely where direction ends and cinematography begins (or where the shot gives over to the edit), but the camera in this film is just… Relentless.

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Show Notes:

Spinning: Gore by Lous & The Yakuza
Drinking: Lemon & Ginger Tea (TEAPIGS)

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