Décision de partir

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.

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..

This is romantic movie about impossible love.

Apart from Park Chan-wook's trademark attention to detail in cinematography, blocking and production design, there really isn't much to be interested at. This movie tries to blend some comedy to tragic crimes and wrap it in this bizarre romance. However for romance to work, it must show somehow. These characters are so cold and distant, you can't believe that either of them love anybody at anytime. The overall theme is this theory of two personal trait groups, where two different persons just can't work out. This is true and sad thing in real life as you start to figure out relationships.

Even though the "theme's" idea is important for people to recognize to navigate in life, it hardly is new idea in movies. It isn't big enough revelation to hang in this movie for it's lengthy run time.

It seems the script was "boring", because many scenes experiment with distortion in perspective in cinematography and somehow for me they seem afterthought and not something that was planned in the script writing process. I could be wrong, but for me instead being new interesting way to visualize, they seemed gimmicky way to keep viewers interest.

There are a lot of language stuff here, even more so with two asian languages for us western folk, so I can't really say if I missed something very important ( I read afterwards and I don't think what I missed really made a difference in the way I see the characters). No matter the language love and passion should be seen without any words and the point of the film anyways (said by the director) was to not use these common words for love.

Hmm. I really wanted to like this movie, since I'm a big fan of The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook. I went in with solid expectations, but unfortunately, for the most part this didn't work for me really.

Let's start with the positive things though. What did I like? The overall cinematography was pretty impressive, with clever camera work elevating each scene. Some camera angles where really interesting in how they framed the characters in the scene, both using close-ups and also with unconventional camera placements. The acting was good, especially from Tang Wei who portrays her character with a great sense of mystery. Also, I very much liked the soundtrack.

But, I'll be honest here, this movie confused the hell out of me. Even though I really tried to follow along with the plot. The movie introduces and reveals so much information all the time and moves between scenes with such a fast pace that it's pretty hard to process everything. On top of that, the narrative is constantly jumping back and forth in time and place, suddenly revisiting old scenes and conversations briefly, which just adds to the confusion. It's not that I dislike complex storytelling, the earlier mentioned The Handmaiden has plenty of interwoven and layered narrative that still manages to tell an understandable and engaging story. Decision to Leave feels in comparison like a needlessly complicated movie with a runtime that is too long for its own good. There are a lot of twists and turns going on, but it just gets a bit tiresome by the end.

I assume that this is a movie that probably becomes better on subsequent viewings, but currently I'm not sure if I have the energy or interest to give this another go. As it stands now, I think this movie is only decent and nothing more really, which is a bit unfortunate.

(Seen at the 2022 Stockholm International Film Festival)