Decision to Leave

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.

Slow-burn romantic thriller which Park Chan-wook's audacious directing made up for somewhat more subdued script. The mystery didn't truly take firm hold of me but i enjoyed every bit of Park & Tang's exquisite performances toward its imminent conclusion..

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" is a film with a very complicated plot, and I am not sure I really understand every twist of it. There is an alibi that doesn't seem so waterproof after all when you consider the possibility of manipulating the cellphone of an old lady. There is a scene in which I was not sure if it portrayed (film)reality or just an hypothetical possibility the detective was thinking about.

The good news is I think that you don't have to understand 100% of the plot to grasp the essence of the movie. The essence is that the film is a mixture of crime and romance, a detective falling in love with his suspect.

Director Park Chan Wook has made violent films ("Oldboy", 2003) and sensual flms ("The handmaiden", 2016). "Decision to leave" is both, but in a more subdued manner than in the rest of his oeuvre. In an early scene the detective and his suspect have had their first interrogation and at the end of it they seem more accustomed to each other than a couple after 15 years of marriage.

Detective Hea Jun (Park Hae Il) does not sleep well and so the association with "Insomnia" (1997, Erik Skjoldbjærg & 2002, Christopher Nolan) is quickly made. An association that becomes even stronger due to the foggy weather in some parts of the movie. Maybe some Dutch viewers (as the writer of this review) have also thought of "The 4th man" (1983, Paul Verhoeven) about a woman who's husbands all mysteriously die. The difference is however that in "Decision to leave" the suspicion is there from the first moment on, while in "The 4th man" it only gradually arises.

"Decision to leave" is beautifully shot. I already mentioned the foggy weather, but also the interior scenes are sometimes beautifully framed. Apart from that there are some shots in which eyes are very prominent, indicating that this is not a movie about action but about see and be seen.

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.