Decision To Leave

UK Release Date. 21 October 2022
Certification. 15

Running Time. 2 hours 18 mins
Director. Park Chan-wook
Cast. Ko Gyung-pyo, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-hyun, Kim Shin-young, Tang Wei, Jung Yi-seo.
Rating. 69%

Review.

Winner of the Best Director Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and screened at The Glasgow Film Theatre as part of the 66th BFI London Film Festival, Decision To Leave is acclaimed director, Park Chan-wook's first feature film in six years. Refusing to be pigeonholed, Decision To Leave is part neo-noir thriller and part ill-fated romance.

Park Chan-wook's films are nothing if not visually striking. Decision To Leave is no exception. Even the most prosaic settings are elevated stylistically by cinematographer, Kim Ji-yong. A high-angled rooftop chase sequence is particularly impressive.

Whilst investigating a climber's suspicious death in the mountains, Detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) becomes uncomfortably close to the prime suspect in the investigation, the dead man's wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei). Although Hae-joon is happily married to Jung-An (Lee Jung-hyun), the alluring and entrancing Seo-rae captivates the detective. Director, Park Chan-wook is in no rush to reveal the characters' motivations. The initial disjointed opening settles into a slow-burn storyline which grows more complex as the film develops. Is Seo-rae manipulating the detective? The ingeniously crafted storyline is highly dramatic, intoxicating and confounding in equal measures.

Never once does Park Chan-wook blatantly declare the film's true protagonist or antagonist. Both leading characters a morally conflicted. Instead, the audience is left musing over an excruciatingly ambiguous relationship with overtones of the eponymous star-crossed lovers from Romeo and Juliet. A relationship with a seemingly equally heartbreaking conclusion.