American Pie with a heart
‘Seoul Searching’ was soul searching at the least. Maybe it was titled like that because of the word soul searching. It’s one of the rare teen movies which has a lot of heart to it. Don’t get carried away with the title or the trailers and expect a raunchy movie to watch with your buddies. ‘Seoul Searching’ is a movie, which is not meant to be enjoyed, strictly with guys. But like how ‘American Pie’ brings ingenuity to the sex comedies, ‘Seoul Searching’ brings credibility to the teen movies. It’s right up there, only next to ‘Fame’, which is my all-time favorite college movie.
The movies feel is much similar to ‘Fame’. May be ‘Fame’ is not as raunchy as this one but to justify ‘Fame’ to be one of your all-time favorite movies is difficult. It’s the same with ‘Seoul Searching’. It is a kind of film which doesn’t fit the frame. Though a number of movies try it by being quirkier, they do it just for the sake of it and end up annoying. Experimental movies with this theme mostly lose it because it’s not made with feel. We see them as detached products but with ‘Seoul Searching’, it starts and ends in a drastically different way. When it starts, we feel the people to be nothing but cartoon characters but when it ends, they are individuals who are so close to our heart. Guess that’s where the movie scores.
The way the film is projected, its hard to identify even whether the premise is true. Considering it true, that, due to Korean war, people had been dispersed to various locations. It sets up a great premise. The narration by itself is so much fun, it gets on us in the first few sentences. It’s like saying, “but we had other ideas”. The way a bunch of people arrive, it feels like “American Pie Presents: Band Camp”, for which I was thoroughly excited but it ended up converging the raunchy and emotional angle to a single line in the end. Though messy throughout, it was fun, it’s like a taste you get only in road side eateries, no matter how shabby the place is. Even though there might be a lot of tasty dishes out there in posh restaurants, something about road side eateries charms you. “Seoul Searching” gives you that feel with all its messiness.
The movie follows a number of kids who are brought to Korea to teach culture. Most of them look like crackpots and have troubled past. In one room is Sid (Justin Chon), Sergio (Esteban Ahn) and Klaus Kim (Teo Yoo). Sid is an eccentric individual who’s into punk music and Klaus is a German and the only decent guy amongst the group. But its Sergio who scores big time with his Mexican accent and attitude. Even though they don’t come up as a gang made for each other, they form a great gang within no time. Thanks to the difference in thinking and contrasting lifestyle, the way they form a group is so much fun.
The movie starts with gate crashing and parties but slowly shows the emotional side of the individuals as well. The only problem is we couldn’t relate to how one would feel living out of the country. They are more Americans and Germans than they are Koreans so to understand them is pretty difficult. That too putting them all in one location, its like one big prison with all culprits. Not demeaning them but the environment is similar, may be that’s why a lot of time grills and locks were shown. And when one of them breaks, he’s from military.
The ladies angle too were explored really well with a Taekwondo girl with an abusive father, an alcoholic due to family strain and a quiet girl who find her biological mother. All of them do a decent job. Actually, the quiet girl’s story didn’t evoke much interest but her last confrontation with her mother, even though filmy, was beautiful.
The climax ball was so much fun especially due to Sergio and ends full Bollywood style, thanks to Klaus. It’s romantic and cheesy, yet agreeable. Because by now we know their past and know how much they’ve longed for true love. And when it happens, it bursts out in full flow. That’s why its so genuine and beautiful.
constantscribbles 