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Seoul Searching is an ’80s-set comedy, a time when the Korean government created a special summer camp for “gyopo” or foreign born teenagers where they could spend their summer in Seoul to learn about their motherland.
While the intentions of the program were honorable, the activities of the teens were not. The program was eventually cancelled after a few years because the government simply could not control the youth. Seoul Searching is a teen comedy and coming of age film, based on a true story about one of the summer camps that took place in 1986.
Written and directed by Benson Lee, and starring Justin Chon, Jessika Van, In-Pyo Cha and Teo Yoo, I have a belief that the optimum length for a movie is 105 minutes – not too short and not too long. Some still work well outside of that, of course, such as Interstellar (169 mnutes) and Grandma (75 minutes), but few films need to last longer than two hours. This one also received three standing ovations at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Seoul Searching doesn’t yet have a UK release date but I definitely want to see this one. And I’m loving the Breakfast Club-style poster!
Check out the trailer below and click on the poster for the full-size image.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.