Review - Decision to Leave
Directed by: Park Chan-wook
Written by: Jeong Seo-kyeong
Starring: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-hyun, Go Kyung-pyo, Park Yong-woo, Jung Yi-seo
Running Time: 138 minutes
Rating: 5/5
The moment you told me you loved me, your love ended and my love began.
Korean auteur, Park Chan-Wook returns with his latest; a crime noir brimming with an absolute tension that blurs the lines between lust, caution and romanticism. A sensual journey across barren landscapes of the rocky mountains and ambivalent peaks to the crashing waves and rising tides of the pacific ocean. Decision to Leave is a culmination of Park Chan-Wook’s decorative career; a picasso portrait of the unholy matrimony of his themes of obsession, revenge and the yearning for love. It is a painting of the human soul, brittle boned and exposed.
Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is an insomniac, a police detective who is kept awake by the murders and crimes left unsolved. He decorates his office with brutal crime scene photos; multiple jigsaw puzzles with key pieces of the puzzle missing. His wife longs for his company; from the way he cooks to the way he caresses her, Hae-jun is only half-present, a ghost roaming through his life, incomplete and soulless. When called to investigate the murder of a man at the bottom of a mountain top; he is pulled into the gaze of the beautiful chinese widow, Seo-Rae, played by the magnificent and devastating Tang Wei.
“The chemistry of this tug-of-war between Hae-jun and Seo-rae is electric; a omnipresent man who becomes stuck between a rock and a hard place. His duty or his desire.”
What begins as a cat and mouse police procedural, Wook begins to unravel the pieces of a mystery that spans across days, months and years. His camera flows with the movements of his characters, the cinematography and production design is sleek, sharp and ever captivating; from the dark corners of Hae-jun’s apartment to the crisp, blue hues of the Korean mountaintops. Wook masterfully crafts the film through a charming but haunting grace that is inherently beautiful, painful and melancholic. Tang Wei’s performance is absolutely stunning in its complexity, lust and emotional soul of the film; her eyes dart to and from her prey, her lips whisper songs that move mountains, she dazzles, transfixes and astonishes. The chemistry of this tug-of-war between Hae-jun and Seo-rae is electric; a omnipresent man who becomes stuck between a rock and a hard place. His duty or his desire. Seo-Rae is now that elusive piece to Hae-jun’s puzzle; a variable that invites him into a world that makes him feel complete. He finds calm in her voice; her touch eases his balled fists and the cigarette smoke that enshrouds her fascinates him. She has made him present again.
Decision To Leave dazzles with its seduction of the human soul; a deconstruction of the wants, the needs and the inherent desires of the things we love, loved and lost. The film is both a hopeless romantic and a hopeless cynic; a noir that pushes and pulls at the heartstrings, a will-they-won’t-they tug of war that transcends the darkness of and cruelty of the world around us. Park Chan-Wook paints his love story with such meticulous framing and pacing; his words and imagery dance with a captivating lyricism and synchronicity. As the paint dries, the brush strokes echo with emotional grandiose that barrels towards you at full speed. The story of Hae-jun and Seo-Rae is tender, provocative and powerful in its unrequited love. To you, the answer to the question is simple.
Stay.
