La decisión de partir

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.

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.

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..

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.