‘Decision to Leave’ is a Haunting Cat-and-Mouse Love Story From Genre Master Park Chan-wook [Fantastic Fest 2022 Review]

Park Chan-Wook_Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook has reached a new level of maturation with Decision to Leave, crafting a darkly sweet romance that still has the genre elements we’ve come to expect from him over the years. Director Park quickly became a highly respected auteur after his tragic revenge trilogy Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Old Boy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance swept across the genre world. His latest is definitely a departure from the films that helped define him as a renowned filmmaker.

Decision to Leave is a detective thriller that slowly unfolds into an unlikely flirtation between two people that are bound together by murder and intrigue. Technically, it’s a master class from Park that favors a more stylistic, meditative approach to unraveling a mystery within a cat-and-mouse framework. It’s probably the most adult film of his career, which may deter audiences that are expecting something more violent and sexual in nature.

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A Busan detective named Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is called to the scene of a mountain climber’s dead body after what appears to be a tragic fall. The mysterious wife of the victim, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), immediately sparks his interest and suspicion when he calls her in for questioning. The attraction is immediate and would normally be a great starting point for a sexy noir if Hae-jun and Seo-rae weren’t so hopelessly repressed and emotionally unavailable. Their stand-offishness is a comment on conservative culture and the fact that Seo-rae is Chinese makes her all the more foreign and seemingly unattainable.

As Hae-jun continues to investigate, he finds that Seo-rae was a victim of spousal abuse by her now conveniently dead husband. Her motive is clear. That doesn’t stop the two of them from hanging out way too much to the point where Seo-rae practically becomes his impromptu partner helping him crack the case. Suffering from severe insomnia, Hae-jun stakes out Seo-rae’s home late into the night and slowly becomes obsessed with her. Blinded by infatuation, Hae-jun doesn’t realize that he’s becoming haunted by a mystery that may never be solved.

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A crucial element in Decision to Leave is a song called “The Mist” that plays multiple times revealing tiny clues about where the mystery will ultimately end. The song itself and the conversations Hae-jin and Seo-rae have together hint at their true nature. Some people, like Seo-rae’s deceased husband like conquering a mountain peak; they both prefer the hypnotic vastness of the sea. Fog and ocean motifs come up repeatedly, driving home themes of secrecy and hidden truths. Both characters have emotional depths that bubble up in subtle ways during private moments between them. Hae-jin can’t bear to admit that he’s in love; Seo-rae can’t confess her true intentions either. “The Mist” is their song and, tragically, they don’t even know it.

As you can probably gather, Decision to Leave is Park Chan-wook’s version of a Hitchcockian romance. The genre elements are distinctly present in parts, however, providing some jarring moments that keep reminding you that, at its heart, this is more of a crime film than a star-crossed love story. The relationship between the lead characters is ultimately doomed and that resonates across the very deliberately drawn-out running time. The ocean-heavy locations and the ruinous pursuit between a detective and his suspect are slightly reminiscent of James Stewart and Kim Novak in Vertigo.

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Park also chooses to use a barrage of close-ups of the open eyes of dead victims. Flies and ants land on the eyelids of decaying bodies as a reminder that some mysteries are never meant to be solved, leaving the dead to slowly rot without ever receiving their due justice. As a dedicated detective, Hae-jin looks at the eyes of victims and knows that their killer was the last thing they ever saw.

Solving the case is closure for him just as much as it is for them. If he can’t solve the mystery at the heart of Decision to Leave, he’s destined to live a life of obsession and neverending longing that will never cease. That’s the true horror Park Chan-wook wants to explore. It’s one of his most dire endings and, if you’ve seen the Shakespearean-level finale of Old Boy, that’s really saying something.

  • Decision to Leave
3.5

Summary

Decision to Leave proves once again that Park Chan-Wook is a master filmmaker, even if it may be his least accessible film.

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