“Seoul Searching”

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
October 11, 2020

Sid Park (played by Justin Chon)
Grace Park (played by Jessika Van)
Mr. Kim (played by In-Pyo Cha)
Klaus Kim (played by Teo Yoo)
Kris Schulz (played by Rosalina Lee)

“Seoul Searching” is a teenage dramedy filled with angst, a killer 1980s soundtrack and some solid acting by a cast of Asian Americans (and Korean veteran actors). But it’s also filled with cliches, some of which work better than others.

Set in Seoul in 1986, a group of Korean American teenagers from around the world have returned to their parents’ native country to partake in a cultural summer camp. But what the children are predominantly interested in is hooking up with each other. They have never seen so many people who look like themselves in one place and it’s both invigorating and intimidating.

Once the story gets past the caricatures (the pastor’s bad girl daughter, the punk rocker appropriately named Sid, the militant by-the-book cadet), the story delves into the deeper meaning of what it means to be Korean in societies that view you as a perpetual foreigner. Though the film concentrates on Korean Americans, two of the more memorable characters are Korean teens raised in Germany (Klaus, played by Teo Yoo) and Mexico (Esteban Ahn’s Sergio).

The film deals with so many issues in a short span of time that topics such as adoption and suicide are rushed, due to lack of time. The most compelling storylines revolve around an adoptee, Kris, and her search for her birth mother. Rosalina Lee gets across the turmoil Kris feels, wanting her first mother to be happy, but also trying to come to terms with what she experienced as an adoptee. The scenes with her mother (Park Ji-Ah) are heartbreaking, showing that an adoptee can have had a good life with her adoptive family and still mourn all the losses she experienced at a young age. Those feelings aren’t mutually exclusive.

There is also a short storyline about how hard Korean parents push their students to excel in their studies, which sometimes have disastrous repercussions. The filmmakers could have expanded on this aspect a bit, because the hagwon system in Korea is foreign to the U.S. audiences — the primary market for this film.

As Klaus, the well-to-do teen from Hamburg, Teo Yoo is understated and elegant. His nervous flirtation with Kris is among the best moments in the movie.

There is a scene in “Seoul Searching” that snuck up on me and made me catch my breath. After a brawl between the visiting Koreans and some Japanese tourists, one of the teachers explains that they are all fighting perceptions from the past. In reality, these Japanese students are just like them — Koreans who grew up in another country. They are all Koreans, despite where they have grown up.

Made on a tight budget, this film is charming in its lack of pretense. But what is unforgivable is how the filmmakers dealt with sexual assault. An attempted rape was dealt with a “my bad” attitude, which was accepted by everyone, including the victim. It was written off as a drunken mistake by a misunderstood boy. GTFOH with that.

Original release date: The 1-hour 45-minute film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2015. It had limited release in the U.S. during the summer of 2016, starting on June 15.