Return to Seoul 2022

Freddie, an affable 25-year-old woman, was born in South Korea and adopted by French parents. She arrives in Seoul for a two-week vacation after her flight to Tokyo is cancelled. She quickly bonds with Tena, the desk clerk at her hotel, and sleeps with a man she meets in a restaurant. Tena and a friend of hers tell Freddie about the Hammond Adoption Center. Freddie expresses no interest in finding her biological parents, yet visits the agency later.

The agency is restricted by law from revealing details of her parents, but are allowed to send them up to three telegrams per year notifying interest from adoptees. She travels to Gunsan for a brief, uncomfortable reunion with her father, Tena serving as translator. On learning that her mother has not responded to all three telegrams, Freddie returns to her biological father’s family for a three-night stay. Her father repeatedly makes drunken calls to her and sends her text messages in Korean regretting giving her up and promising a new life in South Korea.

Back in Seoul, Freddie tells Tena in a bar that she finds the father’s relentless attention oppressive and asks her to tell him to stop. She then cruelly mocks declarations of love from the man she slept with on her first night in Seoul. As they are leaving, she tries to kiss Tena, who rejects her and tells Freddie she is “a very sad person”. Freddie returns to her hotel with the DJ from the bar, but is confronted by her drunken father, who scolds her for ignoring his attempts at contact and scares off the DJ. Tena then suddenly appears, but her father ignores Tena’s attempt to speak to him and as her father grabs hold of her arm, Freddie screams at him not to touch her and leaves.

Two years later, Freddie is living in Seoul. She goes on a date with André, a weapons dealer, who tells Freddie that she would be good in his industry. Freddie tells him that it is her birthday, and that every year on her birthday, she wonders if her mother is thinking about her. At a surprise birthday party thrown for her, she reveals to a co-worker who is also an adoptee that her mother has finally responded to several follow-up telegrams to say she is not interested in meeting her. It is revealed that Freddie’s father still emails her, but she largely ignores him. Freddie tells her co-worker to contact Hammond, but her co-worker says she is following advice to learn about the Korean culture and language beforehand.

Five years later, Freddie speaks broken Korean and works with André selling missiles. On a business trip to South Korea, she goes with her French boyfriend, Maxime, to meet with her father. Her father plays her a piano tune that he wrote and performed, and Freddie is surprised at how it moves her. She becomes annoyed at Maxime when he says to her father that it is Freddie’s destiny to help defend South Korea from North Korea. After dinner, she breaks up with him, heads to the entertainment district, and wakes up the next morning alone in an alley.

Freddie learns that her biological mother has responded positively to another telegram from Hammond, sent by a sympathetic employee in violation of policy. Freddie and her mother meet at a Hammond facility and Freddie weeps as her mother embraces her. Her mother gives Freddie her email address so they can stay in contact.

A year later, on her birthday, Freddie arrives at a hotel seeking a room. She writes an email to her mother apologizing for not contacting her earlier, and says that she thinks she is happy. The email fails to deliver as her mother’s email address is no longer valid. Freddie goes to the hotel lobby and notices a piano with sheet music. She sits down and attempts to sight read the music, hesitantly at first, but soon producing a beautiful melody.