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James Mottram

4/5 stars
Five years since his last film, the erotic tale The Handmaiden, Korean maestro Park Chan-wook returns with Decision to Leave, which finds the director in more melancholic mood as he unfolds a gradual, twisted love story that is playing in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Those who crave the Park of old, from films such as Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, may be sorely disappointed. But those looking for a complex (albeit sometimes convoluted) story about longing and obsession will be in their element.
Co-written by Park, the film stars Park Hae-il as Hae-joon, a married police inspector working the beat in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city. Early on, a body of a man is discovered at the bottom of a steep mountain, which Hae-joon insists on climbing to retrace the victim’s final steps. Question is, did he fall or was he pushed?


The man’s Chinese wife, Seo-rae (Lust, Caution star Tang Wei), seems almost unconcerned, leading some around Hae-joon to immediately point the finger. “If she’s young, beautiful and foreign, does that make her a murder suspect?” he questions, his interest piqued.
Gradually he falls for this mystery woman, believing her alibi makes her innocent. But there’s much more to come in the story, which switches locales halfway through to the fog-shrouded coastal town of Ipo, moving the action on over a year.

Throughout, Park’s keen visual eye presents viewers with some startling images: a snowbound clifftop; an overhead shot of two cars parked by a beach; and even a camera shooting upwards through a corpse’s eye as ants crawl across it. It’s never less than inventive.
There is plenty of narrative trickery too, with flashbacks that deftly jigsaw into the plot. Reflections, mirrored images and repetitions seem to be the order of the day. In truth, it demands the utmost attention from viewers; woe betide those who don’t keep up.
But Park isn’t in entirely sombre form. There’s some odd flashes of humour, like a robbery of a bunch of softshell turtles that goes awry, one of which ends up snapping on someone’s finger like a Looney Tunes cartoon.

In the end, Decision to Leave is an elegantly told doomed romance, with Park Hae-il lending just the right angst to his lovelorn character. The finale, with a setting as dramatic as anything Park has staged, lends the film a deeply satisfying tragic and haunting dimension.
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Tang Wei (right) and Park Hae-il in a still from Decision to Leave.

Tang Wei (right) and Park Hae-il in a still from Decision to Leave, directed by Park Chan-wook, which is playing in the main competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Tang Wei (left) and Park Hae-il in a still from Decision to Leave.

Park Hae-il (left) and Tang Wei in a still from Decision to Leave.

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Oldboy and The Handmaiden director Park Chan-wook returns with a tale of longing and obsession starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il
The director’s keen visual eye presents viewers with some startling images throughout, while the finale’s setting is as dramatic as anything he has ever staged



Oldboy and The Handmaiden director Park Chan-wook returns with a tale of longing and obsession, starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il, that features in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | Cannes 2022: Decision to Leave movie review – Tang Wei shines in Park Chan-wook’s twisted love story

Oldboy and The Handmaiden director Park Chan-wook returns with a tale of longing and obsession starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il The director’s keen visual eye presents viewers with some startling images throughout, while the finale’s setting is as dramatic as anything he has ever staged

Oldboy and The Handmaiden director Park Chan-wook returns with a tale of longing and obsession starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il

The director’s keen visual eye presents viewers with some startling images throughout, while the finale’s setting is as dramatic as anything he has ever staged