The actress, for whom this is her first film, dazzles in Davey Chow’s third film. The story of a young woman adopted in France who moves to her native country, Korea. Meeting.
on the poster Back to Seoul, Park Ji-Min, wearing red lipstick and a shell jacket, looks over her shoulder as she drives straight into the night. A silhouette we want to follow as impressive as his character, Freddy; adopted into a French family by a young woman who accidentally ends up in her native country in what looks like a failed act. , South Korea. While searching for his biological parents, Freddie is also searching for himself, amidst intense encounters, evenings of drunkenness and abandonment, a clash of cultures, language and emotions.
In the video: the trailer Back to Seoul
Before playing Freddy, Park Ji Min, a visual artist, had never been an actress. It’s Franco-Cambodian director Davy Chow (author of the very beautiful golden sleepa documentary about the lost cinema of Cambodia, 2011, then Diamond Island in 2016), who convinced him. And they worked together on this fiery, proud and exciting character, whose career we have been following for more than eight years.
Madame Figaro.- What were your first impressions when you met Freddy?
Park Ji-Min.I thought we had a lot in common. I am not adopted, but I am of Korean descent, an immigrant (Park Ji-Min arrived in France with his family at the age of eight, editor’s note). There were similarities in how we were, how we interacted with others. But I never had the desire to become an actress. It took me a while to really accept the role and get used to the idea that I was going to be part of this project.
Why was it difficult?
Cinema is a medium that interests me very much. I watch a lot of movies, almost one a day, and even visually it inspires me immensely. But an actress, I never had a clue. I told myself that it is difficult to feel deprived of self, body, voice, face and eyes. Serve the character and the story. Especially since I’m used to giving myself 300% when I do something, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. After all, the film was initially a woman’s story as seen through a man’s eyes. It was also a big problem for me.
How did you solve this problem?
I told Davey that we should rework the script on this very question, this character’s interaction with the world, in front of men and also women. At first he couldn’t accept everything I told him, and that’s normal. being a designer myself, I know how hard it is to let go. But we really had to do deconstructive works. Davey understood that it wasn’t about me, but about understanding all the violence that a woman can experience in our current society. That if he didn’t give me a place to express it, I couldn’t make the film. And he accepted. It was not manipulation, he did not accept it, fearing that I would not make the film. He understood that it was beneficial to the latter.
To me, Freddie is like water, if it stagnates, it rots.
Park Jimin
Regarding these issues of the male and female gaze, can you give an example of a scene that has changed since your intervention?
There have been several. It may seem like a small thing, but in reality it makes all the difference to me. In one scene, Freddy finds himself in a car in Seoul with his French friend Maxime, about to meet his biological father and aunt. In the basic scenario, he told her that this place was poisonous to her, that she needed to be protected. And Maxim, in a joking tone, which was already a very bad joke, answered that he would be his knight in service. I told Davey that was impossible, that he couldn’t say that given his trajectory. That she was reduced to the vulnerability of a woman seen by a man who needed to be protected. And the dialogue has changed. There was also substantial work on her appearance. In the second part of the film, Freddy was depicted in an ultrasexual way. again, that’s not a problem, I have nothing against “ultra-sexual” women at all. But there again he was seen with a male gaze, in somewhat clichéd images. Meanwhile, dark lipstick was enough.
Metamorphoses
Freddy’s appearance changes dramatically during the film. We see her as an androgynous millennial, femme fatale, business woman, backpacker… How do these transformations accompany her intimate journey?
These physical transformations mark the fact that it is a character who changes skin, and this allows him to move forward. To me, Freddie is like water, if it stagnates, it rots. We have the right to put down roots, but he keeps moving forward. This is not a head rush, it is a means of survival.
And adapt to survive?
that’s it. Unfortunately, adapting for survival is often a very cruel thing. I can say, I am an immigrant, France is not my native country, and I know how hard it is to live, this pressure, to adapt. I think that’s where these brutal skin changes, this vital need to move forward without looking back, comes from.
What do you think about this young woman’s story? “uprooted» in some way does it affect us in such a universal way?
As humans, we are complex, full of paradoxes and contradictions. I think people who say to themselves, “Okay, I have an identity, it’s fixed,” it’s not possible. Freddie is a character who isn’t afraid to say it. “Okay, it’s chaos, but at least I’m not afraid to explore.” I don’t even think he’s coming up with the right answers, but that’s okay, he’s trying. It’s almost a lost soul to me, but that’s not a negative. It’s really a soul that’s sailing, that’s trying many experiences and trying to live. And I think everyone can relate to that.
In the video, Blackpink, the K-pop group of all records
Source: Le Figaro
