Decision to Leave
Hae-Joon, a seasoned detective, investigates the suspicious death of a man on a mountaintop. Soon, he begins to suspect Seo-rae, the deceased's wife, while being unsettled by his attraction to her.
- Released:
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
- Stars: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-hyun, Park Yong-woo, Go Kyung-pyo, Jung Yi-seo, Lee Hak-joo, Jeong Ha-dam, Lee Yong-nyeo, Jung Young-sook, Kim Shin-young, Park Jeong-min, Yoo Teo, Go Min-si, Seo Hyun-woo, Yoo Seung-mok, Kim Do-yeon, Jeong So-ri, Shin An-jin, Cha Seo-won, Joo In-young, Choi Sun-ja, Jin Yong-uk, Choi Dae-hoon, Kim Mi-hwa, Kwak Eun-jin, Ahn Seong-bong, Kim Gook-jin, Kim Sang-hyun
- Director: Park Chan-wook
Comments
- proud_luddite - 5 April 2024
A mixed bag
Jang Hae-Jun (Park Hae-il) is one of two detectives assigned to investigate a murder in Busan, South Korea. During the investigation, he becomes infatuated with the murdered man's wife, Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei) who might also be a suspect in the murder. Further tension is caused by the fact that Hae-Jun is married.
While the two leads give fine performances individually, there is a lack of chemistry between them. It doesn't help that most of their communication is by text messaging. Texting is probably the way most people communicate in our modern world so in this way, the film is accurate in reflecting real life. But it comes off as dull when used so often in a movie.
Many scenes in the movie are mixed with opposite effects. The film has many scenes that are well directed (by Park Chan-wook) and there are good performances from all cast members as well. There is also a powerful ending. On the other hand, there are many other scenes that are too long and sometimes convoluted and confusing.
A mixed result overall. - dbamateurcritic. - Smarmelade - 19 November 2023
Tragedy, comedy, drama, mystery and more
I know runtime of almost two and the half hours will turn off some people. But it's worth it.
Simple movie with a mostly simple premise that has it all - mystery, love, drama, crime, tragedy, comedy, absurdity, humanity. And all of it is subdued just enough to make it all work. Hence probably the runtime.
You just can't resist and not like main characters.
Photography is great and I really liked the details in sound desgin. All technical stuff is done solid and then sprinkled with some quality of life details.
It's hard to be in love with a completely wrong person for the right reasons and as is shown with two main characters, there is not much they can do about it without creating total chaos. So they endure, suffer and complicate things.
Music is also fenomenal.
It's one of those movies that you have to experience in person and if it draws you in, great. In any case - you should watch this. - cherold - 5 August 2023
Twisty film-noir
Decision to Leave is, in the outline, a modern Korean version of old Hollywood noirs like Double Indemnity. Only a little twistier and a little weirder.
The film is stylishly directed by the brilliant Park chan-wook, not in a flashy way but in a way that conflates what's happening in a way that creates emotional connections and, sometimes, a little confusion. The mystery has its twists, but it actually builds twists on top of those twists, avoiding the trap many mysteries fall into of letting audiences guess what's going on based on past films.
The movie also has a surprisingly ordinary femme fatale. Tang Wei plays Song Seo-rae as a very normal character, neither impossibly sophisticated nor frightened and in need of protection. I'm not sure what to make of this, really. I never understood why the detective was so drawn to her (and he eventual explanation is not at all helpful), but in a way, that's part of the unknowableness at the heart of the movie.
As a detective mystery, all questions are answered. But as a look into the hearts of two people, everything's continually murky, the motivations askew, the feelings contradictory. That emotional messiness is unusual in noirs, but I really like it.
Recommended. - rida_rock - 30 December 2022
Park's Into The Mood For Love
4 weeks later and still thinking about the ending, I don't think I'll ever recover from it, I've watched this beauty 2 times so far and it's arguably the movie of the year. I've never thought that Park Chan Wook would dare to deviate from his own theme, which centers on 3 essential elements (Sex, Violence, Plot twist) . Yet he managed to deliver such an extraordinary complex movie with a profound plot that will hit you right to the core. I could literally go on forever talking about how subtle the symbolism is in this movie, it's just pure perfection.
Tang Wei's performance was unbelievably exquisite and probably the female performance of the year. - stairways - 18 December 2022
Huge disappointment
I rarely give up on mystery/thriller/noir detective stories, especially if they're coming from a part of the world that adds an unexpected element of rhythm, location, or character. And I'd seen, and loved, some of the director's previous films.
But this one defeated me and, after suffering for over an hour its repeated inconsequential turns and bends (not quite twists), its pretentious moodiness and its lack of comic pacing despite its comical plot, I turned it off.
The Chinese anti-heroine in South Korea who keeps killing her husbands is a direct nod to the story's noir origins, but it goes absolutely nowhere, and the actors and director both seem to have little idea what's the point.
Not for the first time I'm reminded of Samuel Johnson, responding to a script by a rival author: 'It's both good and original,' he began. 'But the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good.' - TreeFiddy53 - 30 November 2022
Loved it.
From the makers of "Old Boy", The Vengeance Trilogy, The Handmaiden, etc., comes another brilliant genre-bending film that is likely going to have you go "Bruh, what did I just watch!? " just like Park Chan-wook's other movies.
This is South Korea's submission for the Oscars this year, has all sorts of high scores, and has already been winning awards left-right-and-center all over the world.
The plot and the acting in this movie is top notch and so is the chemistry between the lead actors. The ending, you won't see it coming.
All that said, this film is a treat to whomever wants make films, a masterclass in direction. You could pretty much stare at some of the framing in this movie and think "Why film it this way? He didn't have to..." but he did, almost makes you wonder just how thoughtful and deliberate the scenes are, pretty much throughout the movie. Cinematography, editing and lighting - epic I can sing all the praises but you've got to watch it to appreciate how technically brilliant this film is.
I won't be surprised if this film takes away several Oscars (even though people care lesser and lesser about them) especially Best Director. Don't miss it if you have a chance to watch it, you'll likely need to do some reading and talking to understand parts of the movie but it's worth the extra effort. - rlee-75268 - 13 November 2022
Intriguing
The film is flawed and holds incredible ideas and techniques which birth like a baby. The more you view the closer you seem to get to oblivion as the crew mixes and plays with your own abolition. It's intriguing, sexy and dominant, wishfully venging your heart with subtle punches of filmaker's glee. Tang Wei is great and the main actor does a nice job holding the plane together as Park Chan Wook plays with your mind. This film is a fever dream and you wake up 3 weeks after wondering what it was trying to say. Simply put, it's gorgeous poetry and I would rate it a strong 7, placing it in the upper tier of gorgeous and simply made films with a lot of desire. Incredible time. - Quinoa1984 - 3 November 2022
brilliantly directed Neo-noir that is about an odd kind of obsession
Well.... someone definitely made a decision at the end of this! (That's what I said when the final shot concluded and the titles started to roll).
I'm not sure I can add much other critics haven't pointed out - that it is slow going, restrained, the intensity of the emotions between this cop and the "suspect" (is she, isn't she, and is he dun dun dun) mostly underneath a well of insomnia and a loss in translation from Chinese to Korean - except that I do want to see it again not so much to experience this or that stylistically so much that it got a little more confusing for me as it got into the climax than it did for some of you smarter folks out there.
Park hae-il and Tang Wei do have chemistry and some kind of spark going on here, but what may throw off some expecting the high melodrama of Oldboy and Lady Sympathy is how quiet a lot of this is. At the same time, it's just exhilarating ho Park chanwook gets an audience into these set pieces, specifically using Park hae-il comes into these crime scenes as he projects himself. Matter of fact, this movie is very much about how someone, like a sleep deprived emotionally fractured Detective, creates this scenarios that may very well have happened because he's that smart and sharp a Detective... or he needs for it to be true on some level.
This is a stylistically ambitious film, both by camera and more-so with its editing and cuts within scenes and transitions, perhaps so much so that it's more of a directing triumph than a script one; I do find the characters not as deep as perhaps Park does and the actors, hae-il especially, who are exceptional, can imbue these people with more pathos than is on the page. But this is another of those times where how a scene is shot, how someone is framed, how we see even those eye-drops go in to that angst-ridden cop, not to mention how all of those scenes on the beach are shown near the end (I'd dare not say what happens on said beach just that it's a... beach boy howdy), it's a filmmaker in crafty and clever command of his craft.
Decision to Leave is satisfying bravura direction (justified Cannes win). A great film? Gotta sit with that.
