The Story was good but I did think that it was ever so slightly lacking something, The story really consisted of the build up of relationships with the characters but the way some of the characters were portrayed in the story I couldn’t really grow to like some of them.
Some of the actors/ cast I didn’t really like the characters they played I didn’t really like Grace in all honesty, but I feel like the actress did really well in portraying her, I also didn’t like the other female lead, Kris I feel as if the actress didn’t really fit the part for it (in my opinion), some of the minor characters acting was a bit iffy but despite that I felt that the other actors and actresses really fit the part.
The music had all the greatest hits in the 80’s which I absolutely loved
Overall 7.5
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"Seoul Searching" Emulates John Hughes Just a Little too Well
[Written/Watched 21 Aug, 2020. Expanded 1/21/2021]The idea of a film exploring Korean diaspora is certainly an interesting one, and the whole reason I decided to look into the film. For the most part there film has some fairly interesting moments regarding how divorced and alienated next generation Koreans are from S/N Korean culture and life.
But, outside maybe two characters, there's no real in-depth investigation into that alienation. It's summarized in scenes that directly address the subject, then quickly falls into the background of the 80s soundtrack and teen antics emulating John Hughes scripts (right down to his xenophobia and racism).
There's a moment where Korean-Japanese students are antagonized by our primary ensemble cast, and the two groups have to make amends with each other because their teachers don't want them perpetuating the antagonism of the past (that continues to directly impact both cultures). It got me thinking that the film desperately needed a Japanese-Korean protagonist to actually confront that with any kind of honesty beyond a energetic and flashy fight sequence.
The film's cast are effectively a bunch of broad stereotypes, introduced to the audience in a sort of faux roll call montage that exists just for the reaction shots of (South) Korean citizens cringing at the kinsmen who've lived abroad.
A lot of the characters are never given the opportunity to be humanized. The cast is bloated in a way better suited for a television series. A Black Korean teen, and a tomboy who mistrusts men as a result of an abusive father, got zero face time beyond a few moments that revolve around a Mexican-Korean character, Sergio. Sergio's whole character is that of the "Hot Latin Lover" stereotype who talks endlessly about women.
To be frank, the only characters with a story worth investing in is Klaus Kim (a German-Korean boy who wears expensive suits, characterized as a gentleman, one who ends up cheating on his girlfriend, lmao) and Kris Shutlz (a Korean-American girl who was adopted into a white family after her biological mother gave her up to spare her of an abusive household). They not only feel like human characters, but their individual stories, dynamic and chemistry keeps the film afloat.
The story of the teacher, who put his reputation before the mental health of his son (and family), wants you to empathize with the fact that he was responsible for pushing his son to suicide. I find myself hating the character despite the believably of the performance that communicates immense regret and shame.
A lot of the film is wasted on a Sid Vicious and Madonna stan, and a loud-mouthed military boy. The Madonna stan doesn't do much except reenact Madonna music videos and is used as a plot device in the Sid Vicious stan's angst subplot. The military boy embodies toxic masculinity, homophobia, and racism typical of the era, but is in no way critiqued as incorrect.
All three character subplots converge with an attempted rape scene that's glossed over and forgiven. The issue with these characters is entirely founded in the fact that they only seem to exist as an excuse for Benson Lee to exercise his anti-Blackness, sexism and homophobia.
It's a shame that the film isn't particularly interested in investigating its own anti-Blackness, because that's what really kept me from engaging with the film's narrative beyond Kris and Klaus.
Jamie (the Black Korean girl) is never given the opportunity to be a character, just a reactionary minor character for Sergio. When Sergio ends up paired up with the tomboy character, it seemed, at first, that he and Jamie would remain as friends. At the last minute, Jamie is transformed into shrieking Mean Girl who gets lemonade thrown into her face when she demands to know why the tomboy is moving in on her date, and disappears into the background. There's zero empathy for her.
There are three Korean-American characters who are clearly trying to emulate Run DMC (if not the Beastie Boys). Their entire reason for being in the film is simply to put on a Blackaccent and make a mockery of Black culture (Hip Hop culture specifically) as the writer-director takes every opportunity to flaunt his knowledge of racial slurs with them and the military boy. Once they're no longer needed for comic relief, they're booted out of the film off-screen.
Because the film was written by someone who didn't regard Black culture or its sole Black character with any kind of empathy, there's no one in the story to challenge the blatant racism on display in the film. The Run DMC wannabes are ultimately just as complicit in perpetuating racism as the military boy was, and the dismissal of Jamie.
The movie has its moments, but the problems outweighed the positives for me.
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the story revolves around a camp made for koreans who grew up outside of korea so they could learn about their heritage and so at the start we just had a bunch of rebels who wanted to party and have fun, ie they were nothing like what "normal" korean kids were.
they wore weird clothes, they talked weird, they didn't respect the rules but as the story went by it was like layer after layer of emotional revelations and honestly the bonds and friendships that came out of this was so pure I kinda wish they made a drama out of this.
for "koreans" the kids were weird, but for those kids they had to adapt to their new homes to survive those cultures and now they were thrown back to yet another culture they didn't understand but the catch was this one is their supposed "real" home
I actually laughed several times and I teared up a few times too overall I think for relatively "unknown" actors and actresses they did really well
I never rewatch stuff and they used several 80s classics so the ost was nice too
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A touching story about the children of the korean-american diaspora
As the child of an immigrant myself, this hit home. A group of Korean, second generation immigrant teens are sent back to Korea on a government program to learn more about their homeland. Unused to the strictness of Korean society, these westernised teens stick out like a sore thumb. They get up to all sorts of shenanigans, breaking each of the clearly set out rules as they go.This drama touches upon the differences in parenting styles of the immigrants vs the South Korean natives and their various pitfalls. However, whilst it tries to remain balanced and give fair representations of western teens and South Korean born ones, the overly sensationalised presentation of the south korean teen diaspora, creates an undertone that they are somehow broken or wrong because they were not raised in South Korea. It may have been more fair and believeable to focus less on 'the party animal' presentation of the western teens and more on the issues of strained identity, language barriers, the struggle of cultural allegiance, etc - all the things that the children of the diaspora struggle with. I also wish they had them interact with actual korean teens rather than just the teachers. It all felt very child vs adult to me - a clash of age, rather than culture, which would have fit the theme better.
All in all, it's a great film but it's too one sided and overly dramatic in some areas. If you ignore the whole 'reconnecting with my culture' bit you are left with a brilliant angsty teen drama. However, that would miss the point and thus my low overall ratings.
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A movie resonating through any diaspora
The movie portrays young people going to Korea to spend a few weeks to discover the culture from which their parents came from. The movie was great in chosing as much as possible actors who were of Korean origin, though born/raised outside of Korea, giving additional realism to a movie, which could have easily sunk into nonsense or as a copy of USA coming of age movies.Some parts are phenomenal, e.g. having the real singer Kim WanSun from the 80's singing her song Tonight as a bar singer, or the incident at the DMZ.
Coming myself from the Italian diaspora, having married a Korean, and living in neither countries, this movie was special to me. 감사합니다/grazie
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a let down !!
The movie wa such a let down!! The idea of it was very good, but the execution was terrible.I was ready to see how these teens would take to Korea and Korean traditions. I wanted more of their interactions with their teachers and Korean people, but all we got was them being idiot rebellious teenagers with each other.
I mean why bother send the kids alll the way to korea for calligraphy lessons and "what do u think being Korean means?" #FAIL
The acting and characters were also very very bad. The entire movie, there were only two scenes I actually liked.
The OST was also very loud and annoying.
Props for Cha In Pyo , though, for his fluent English. His character was one of the few I liked or cared about.
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