Lest we forget, military spouses experience their own forms of PTSD. In Lee Man-hui's delectably arty, beautifully shot melodrama Homebound (a.k.a. Coming Back a.k.a. The Way Home a.k.a. A Road to Return), the protagonist isn't the depressed, wheelchair-bound veteran (Kim Jin-gyu) who's writing a serialized roman a clef for a Seoul newspaper. It's his saintly wife (Moon Jeong-suk) who has trauma-triggered hallucinations of her own — although how far they extend is really up to the viewer to decide. What we do know, for sure, is that she's responsible for dropping off her husband's latest chapter to the editor-in-chief who would like to see the story get a little more "human." By which he means, can't she cheat already?
She for her part is unsure of the answer. Will her hubby stop idealizing her sexless sacrifices? Will the oh-so-close almost-kiss she has with a rookie reporter (Kim Jeong-cheol) at a makeout bar ever develop into a duel of the tongues? Will she ever get more physical contact than what she receives from her pet German shepherd Bess? The neurotic way she applies lipstick late in the film sure suggests she needs some kind of help fast. Because if she doesn't get it, she's going to end up in Tennessee Williams country instead of Incheon.
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