---
name: "Davy Chou"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/davy-chou"
fi1m_id: "davy-chou"
imdb_id: "nm1976187"
tmdb_id: 1124422
wikidata_id: "Q3019176"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "13 August 1983"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-09-17T20:34:06.245394+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Davy Chou

## Identity

Davy Chou

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/davy-chou
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** davy-chou
- **IMDb ID:** nm1976187
- **TMDB ID:** 1124422
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3019176
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Chou, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3019176, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1976187/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1124422

Producer and director. Born 13 August 1983 in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 13 August 1983, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Chou, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3019176, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1976187/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1124422

## Fi1m on Davy Chou

> Davy Chou lets displaced people be difficult without making them explain themselves. We recommend his work for its patient attention to actors, with a caveat: *Return to Seoul* loses some of its force as it jumps through time.

In *Return to Seoul* (2022), Freddie pushes restaurant tables together and pours soju for strangers. She tells Tena, the guesthouse receptionist, that in France people look one another in the eye when they drink. We enjoyed her nerve, even as her instructions to Tena made us wince. Park Ji-min, acting for the first time, gives Freddie the confidence to take over the evening. Chou lets her do it without providing an explanation that would make her easier company.

Chou's feature work began with *Golden Slumbers* (2011), a documentary recovering memories of Cambodia's 1960s and 1970s cinema. *Diamond Island* (2016), his first fiction feature, turned towards young people amid Phnom Penh's rapid redevelopment. His fiction brings questions of belonging into particular places and everyday encounters. In *Return to Seoul*, the Korean-French adoptee insists she has not come to find anyone, then goes to an adoption agency.

With cinematographer Thomas Favel among his regular collaborators, Chou favours vivid night colours and close-ups held long enough to put expression before dialogue. Those close-ups suit his willingness to leave us uncertain about what a character wants. He often casts first-time or non-professional actors, allowing extended preparation and time to build trust. In Park's case, he does not soften Freddie's rudeness to make her more likeable, and the performance is better for it.

The difficulty is keeping that interest alive across a whole film. Chou's jumps through time follow changes in his characters rather than delivering a steady explanation, and in *Return to Seoul* the later chapters are thinner than the opening. We would still rather have this uneven film than a reassuring reunion story that requires Freddie to become agreeable. Some of those later stretches simply give us less to respond to. Start with *Return to Seoul* for Park, not for the promise of a comforting homecoming.

## Biography

Davy Chou is a Cambodian-French filmmaker who writes and directs feature films. Born in France in 1983, he founded the production company Vycky Films in 2009.

His first feature-length fiction film, *Diamond Island* (2016), premiered in the Critics' Week section at Cannes. He had previously directed the documentary *Golden Slumbers* (2012) and the short film *Cambodia 2099* (2014).

Chou wrote and directed *Return to Seoul* (2022), which follows a young French woman of Korean origin returning to Seoul. The film was Cambodia's official entry for the Academy Awards' international feature category.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, variety.com, scmp.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Return to Seoul* (2022), Fi1m 83, Director, Writer, Associate Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/return-to-seoul.md)

## Complete filmography (31)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Nightseekers* (2026), Producer
- *Incident on the Mountain* (2026), Producer
- *Fresh as Daisy* (2025), Co-Producer
- *Yes* (2025), Thanks
- *Becoming Human* (2025), Associate Producer
- *Golden Dragon* (2024), Producer
- *Doi Boy* (2023), Producer
- *Return to Seoul* (2022), Director, Writer, Associate Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/return-to-seoul.md)
- *Further and Further Away* (2022), Producer
- *White Building* (2021), Producer
- *Sunrise in My Mind* (2021), Producer
- *Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle* (2021), Co-Producer
- *The Taste of Secrets* (2020), Co-Producer
- *California Dreaming* (2019), Producer
- *The Prince Of Sihanoukville* (2019), Director
- *Last Night I Saw You Smiling* (2019), Producer
- *New Land Broken Road* (2018), Producer
- *A Million Years* (2018), Producer
- *Quinzaine Claire* (2017), Producer
- *Diamond Island* (2016), Director, Screenplay
- *Turn Left Turn Right* (2016), Associate Producer
- *Three Wheels* (2015), Producer
- *Goodbye Phnom Penh* (2015), Producer
- *Dream Land* (2015), Associate Producer
- *Cambodia 2099* (2014), Director, Writer
- *Their New House Is Covered With Cork* (2013), Director
- *Boundary* (2013), Co-Producer
- *Golden Slumbers* (2011), Director
- *Expired* (2008), Screenplay, Director
- *To Leave, To Stay*, Producer
- *Sea within a Sea*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![French director Davy Chou at the Côté Court film festival of Pantin, France, in 2012.](https://film.one/media/person/21157/gallery-0d9cb8241618.jpg) French director Davy Chou at the Côté Court film festival of Pantin, France, in 2012. — 自由馴鹿 (ZiYouXunLu), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Davy_Chou.jpg/1280px-Davy_Chou.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Davy Chou](https://film.one/media/person/21157/gallery-bf0cd8d1dd63.jpg) Davy Chou — Céline Chou, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Davy_Chou_Filmmaker.jpg/1280px-Davy_Chou_Filmmaker.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Davy Chou](https://film.one/media/person/21157/gallery-dc4f8f0845b2.jpg) Davy Chou — Image via TMDB
- ![Davy Chou](https://film.one/media/person/21157/gallery-020f6b3a1564.jpg) Davy Chou — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/davy-chou