Die Frau im Nebel

From the director of Oldboy & The Handmaiden comes a new crime mystery that's successful in sustaining our interest & investment in the whole outcome by keeping alive its sense of doubts & hints of darkness but it is also too drawn out & long-winded to leave a lasting impression. More a romance disguised as police procedural, Decision to Leave is a story of unrequited love, regret, longing & reminiscence.

Co-written & directed by Park Chan-wook (Joint Security Area & Thirst), the story concerns a police detective who falls for a mysterious widow who happens to be the prime suspect of his latest murder investigation. The plot has multitudes of layers to it and is narrated in ways that requires closer inspection and while the technical mastery is top-notch, the film is surprisingly missing the immersive quality of his best works.

The central romance plays its own tricks amidst all the secrecy & revelations that surface every now n then and a few scenes even manage to stand out but the film's intentions remain shaded despite never losing its intrigue. Tang Wei plays the femme fatale with an enigma & allure that's as captivating as it is compelling and she is finely supported by Park Hae-il who fittingly renders his role of the insomniac cop unsettled by his attraction to her.

Overall, Decision to Leave fascinates & frustrates in equal measure with its confusing narrative, unpredictable characters, discursive detours, tedious pace and a runtime that's severely felt. The drama has a more ruminative flair to it and the two lead performances steer it rather wonderfully. And even though the film as a whole may unravel more on subsequent viewings, it is suffice to say for now that Park Chan-wook's latest is more or less an underwhelming dud.

As "Decision To Leave" (2022 release from South Korea; 139 min) opens, the body of a mountain climber is found. Was he pushed or did he slip? Detective Hae-Jun leads the investigation of this "unaccountable death without witnesses", and his first target is the surviving wife, Seo-Rae, an emigrant from China without much outward signs of any grief... At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from writer-producer-director. Park Chan-wook, who previously brought us "The Handmaiden" and "Stoker", among others. Here he brings us what at first appears to be a murder mystery, but it isn't long before the movie morphs into something different altogether. The movie is super plot-heavy so the less said about it, the better. Just watch! I will say that the movie's overall tone and atmosphere is transfixing from start to finish. The photography on location in Korea (thankfully staying away from the usual suspect Seoul) is outstanding. But in the end it's all about the movie's powerful storytelling, a trademark of many of Park's previous films.

"Decision To Leave" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to immediate critical acclaim (and Park winning the festival's "Best Director"). The movie is currently rated 94% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason, I am already going on record that this film without a doubt will get a "Best Foreign Film" Oscar nomination. The movie opened at my local arthouse theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The early evening screening where I saw this at on the day after Thanksgiving was attended so-so (I counted 10 people including myself). I can only hope that as word of mouth gets around, along with the expected year-end award nominations coming out, this will garner wider attendance. If you are in the mood for a top-notch foreign film that starts out as a murder mystery but evolves into something else altogether, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

A body has been found beneath a cliff, you are a copper, and you should find what made him stiff, was it suicide or murder, an accident, lets dig down further, speak to his wife, try to discover any rift. It's not too long before you're caught inside a spell, a kind of fog descends that clouds and hangs and dwells, conflicting feelings are consumed, Chinese Whispers are perfumed, exchanges made, that lock you in, a widows cell. Time passes and you take a new commission, until out shopping and you fall into remission, a second bolt gives you a jolt, brings you to another halt, the rising tides, conceal and hide, your indiscretion.

Great performances, especially from Tang Wei, and a story to get you thinking, that is what great directors and great films are supposed to do after all.

By the description alone, you may walk into Decision to Leave expecting Park Chan-Wook's Basic Instinct, but what you'll get is Park Chan-Wook's In the Mood for Love, an every-frame-a-painting anti-erotic romance between two lovers held together by a messed up situation, while also being a true-to-form noir film with less setup and payoff but more poetic justice than Chinatown, in Park's least horny film to date. The film centers around an unhappily married police detective put to work on a crime he finds himself not wanting to solve, as he investigates the movie's femme fatale for the murder of her husband, while attempting to work out his uncontrollable attraction to her, forcing both of them to ask themselves how romance can survive when hope for a future together depends upon them leaving the past unresolved. It's a mystery that Park unpacks with uncharacteristic restraint, if only because its ultimate payoff is more of a sinking realization than the kind of sudden bombshell often detonated at the end of his earlier films, requires these characters to remain firmly in the real world, where their adult longings will face adult consequences, though toning down the heightened, wildly over-the-top situations and conclusions from a typical Park fare does not change the fact that the storytelling here, both in its writing and visuals, is done with more precision than anything else he's made so far. Beginning at the sensuous first interrogation scene, which is hardly the first time in a film where an interrogation is framed as an act of seduction, it isn't the potential for sex that gets things moving (like Basic Instinct) as their very obvious affair remains unconsummated, but instead, we're given two unhappy people worming themselves into each other's minds, like faint whispers that may help them finally sleep.

Decision To Leave follows a dangerously obsessive relationship with thrilling, emotional and unpredictable results. Balancing a tender and unusual romance with a genuinely gripping mystery.

Park Hae-il and Tang Wei are both incredible, both subtly restrained and vulnerable at the same time with chemistry that's ridiculously palpable and their game of cat and mouse is effortlessly enthralling as the power dynamic constantly changes.

Park Chan-Wook's direction is superb, the film is constantly visually inventive in a way that enhances the psychological aspects and the cinematography by Kim Ji-Yong is absolutely gorgeous. The music by Cho Young-Wuk is excellent with a sense of suspense and mystery reminiscent of old Hollywood.