What stands out the most about this film is its refusal to take the easy route. While viewers may think they can predict the direction after the first act, they are mistaken. The narrative defies predictability, mirroring the unpredictable nature of wounded souls and those who never feel truly at home.

The protagonist's actions may seem foolish, but what truly captivates is the striking humanity portrayed with raw realism, making it impossible to abandon the desire and hope for her to find solace within. I was left speechless when I found out that this is Ji-Min Park's debut role. A role that made me shed tears on more than one occasion and that is her merit in making us see so well that everything she is, is the result of her life's circumstances.

The experiende Oh Gwan-rok, in the role of the biological father, is also outstanding, but this is not just a film of performances. It boasts brilliant scenes, expertly paced storytelling, daring technical choices, and a secure, risk-taking direction, all complemented by a flawless soundtrack.

PS: The main theme of this and the one of "Decision to Leave" are two haunting melodies that linger in my mind, compelling me to delve deeper into the history of South Korean music.

I think I may have warmed to this film better had I not taken an instant dislike to "Freddie" (Park Ji-min). Now it's certainly a testament to this actor that she is able to successfully - and pretty immediately - engender a sense that her character is a rather selfish, manipulative and unpleasant individual; but I'm afraid I struggled to remain engaged as her troubled story of adoption and of her re-introduction to her birth family is played out over the next two hours. "Freddie" appears to have been happily brought up by a couple in France, so her increasingly thoughtless behaviour doesn't really have an anchor - and as we progress and she becomes more obnoxious - as exemplified by her final scene in the car with poor old "Maxime" (Yoann Zimmer) - I found the story has just about run out of merit. The acting is generally good. The efforts from her slightly dipso dad (Oh Kwang-rok) is convincing as he has to reconcile the discovery of his long-lost daughter with his dependency on the bottle and her own pretty obvious disdain for the man. It also offers us quite an interesting insight into just how adoptions worked as the decline of the French colonial system in post-war Korea led to many children being offered by parents who hoped that a childhood and education in France would offer greater opportunity, but again with "Freddie" that isn't really developed. What has turned her into this rather objectionable person is rather left aside. It has an element of "be careful what you wish for" to it, and is, at times, an interesting observation on the stresses of the post-adoption processes but I just didn't like or care about her and so my enthusiasm just waned.

This is a very weird movie, in that it takes South Korean actors, playing as they do in South Korea, but in a movie done the European way. Once you get through this, you get to know Freddie, a woman that was abandoned by her South Korean parents and adopted by French people. Her introduction to South Korea doesn't go smoothly, she is self centred, toxic and manipulative, but also very loud, in a culture where all this is more than frowned upon. She makes everyone around her very uncomfortable, and by extend she makes you uncomfortable. The movie takes you on her journey to find herself, over 7 years, from the first time she arrives in Seoul. She tries to meet her parents through the foundation that allowed her parents to adopt her. She finds out that the foundation protects parents a lot more than she protects the kids, allowing her to send only 3 messages to her birth parents, before all contacts are cut off. She meets her father very fast, but struggles for years to meet her mother. In the meantime, she gets more and more toxic, and manipulative, hurting everyone around her, but putting it all on Seoul rather than herself. The character is extremely unlovable, which takes you away from having any feeling for what is happening to her. This is too bad, because the exercise of a European movie filmed through the eyes of South Korea would have been very interesting.