Decision to Leave

Decision to Leave is the latest movie to be released by famous South Korean filmmaker, Park Chan-wook, who is known for creating films that feature grim subject matters, a sense of black humor and uniquely framed visuals. This style has made him popular both in and out of South Korea, with films like Joint Security Arena, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, and The Handmaiden, receiving commercial and critical acclaim. Decision to Leave was no different, being critically acclaimed and dominating the film festival space and various awards shows (yet failed to receive any Oscar nominations). With the build-up surrounding this 2022 picture, the final results may not reach that grand of a height but will still leave you decently impressed by what you see. Insomniac detective Jang Hae-jun (played by Park Hae-il) is tasked with inspecting the case of a recently murdered retired immigration officer who was found dead at the bottom of a mountain. After inspecting the victim’s much younger wife, Chinese emigrant, Song-Seo-rae (played by Tang Wei), Hae-jun starts to suspect that Seo-rae is responsible for the act and starts to observe her outside of work hours, which causes him to become infatuated with her despite already being married to nuclear power plant worker, Jung-an (played by Lee Jung-hyun). After growing closer together and deciding to drop the charges against her (both for a seemingly solid alibi and due to his own current obsession), Hae-jun can’t quite shake the fact that the situation still feels very uncertain, and the more time he spends around Seo-rae, the more he fears that she was in fact the culprit and is clearly aware of what she’s doing in this investigation (and with him). Though they try to separate as time passes, they still seem to find themselves meeting up again, and now that another husband of Seo-rae has met a gruesome end, can Hae-jun really cover it up any longer? Decision to Leave tackles a familiar genre and premise in a solid enough manner and creates an interesting balancing act of having about as many negative elements as it does positive. It’s not a perfect flick by any means and doesn’t quite live up to its full potential, but with great acting, memorizing visuals and score, and great elements within its script and direction, it’s one that’s still worth checking out.

You can feel a lot of inspiration from other detective-based neo-noir stories when watching this flick, as not only was Park Chan-wook inspired by the Swedish crime novel series ‘’The Story of a Crime’’ written by authors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, but you can also feel a lot of aspects from films like Basic Instinct and Vertigo as well while watching, all of which contain this passionately aggressive tone that muddies up an already amoral genre to a level that feels contemporary and even slightly risqué, yet still remains faithful to its classical roots. The basic pieces of this narrative aren’t anything that dramatic for a typical film noir or even a procedural story, with a detective having to interact with a suspicious female counterpart who may or may not be involved in a larger murder going on, but the manner in which the film details itself out helps make it feel like its own thing through a more subdued atmosphere, glossier visuals and a less climatic ending. With that said, this familiarity becomes a bit of an issue when you see that outside of a few tonally and visual components, it isn’t reaching too far out of the box for this kind of plot, which leads to a few moments feeling a little dull. The opening is handled pretty poorly overall, with a sporadic pace that starts too quickly without context and then goes too slow out of nowhere, the specifics of the story are a little complicated to follow, and it just sets itself up in a serviceable but not the most thrilling manner. The film is frustrating in the sense that for everything that it handles in a good way, it’s always matched with something that isn’t as strong as it arguably could be, leading to this bizarre situation where the film as a whole is flawed in a general sense, but with each con, there comes an equally impressive pro. The screenplay for this film written by Chan-wook and the equally impressive Jeong Seo-kyeong (who frequently collaborated with Chan-wook on films like I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay, Thirst, Lady Vengeance and The Handmaiden) is actually pretty good, with a premise that has the potential to be engaging, a narrative direction that isn’t entirely clear about where its heading, and characters that (while can be on the bland side at times) are constructed in a way that make them feel more complex than they might actually be. It might not reach the levels of depth and intrigue an idea like this requires, but there are pieces here and when they work, they do stand out. This can also be said for the directing, as even though there are moments where it feels like Chan-wook is a little out of his element and chooses some odd decisions from a visual perspective, several moments are handled so tight and expertly that its undeniable that he is very talented filmmaker. The film also has a really strong ending that ties everything together pretty nicely, which is almost shocking considering it is a plot that felt like it couldn’t really be knotted together nicely, yet the closing note is simultaneously cryptic and dreary, yet also soft and serene, it’s a pretty great stopping point.

The cast for this film is not the most interesting bunch to watch overall (especially in regards to other noir stories where the characters are known for being morally grey and packed with plenty of rotten meat to chew on), but not only are a majority of the actors pretty solid and hold these roles up pretty well, but the direction of the story plus its overall theme does bring out a side of them that make them feel a bit more nuanced, particularly the leads. Both Hae-jun and Seo-rae are seemingly drawn to toxic and dangerous situations, almost to the point that they can’t live or feel excitement without an element of danger and wrongfulness involved. It’s this element that draws them together and creates this infatuation, but the film is smart enough to not paint this as a positive thing (which makes sense considering the guy is flat out cheating on his wife without any regret) and instead highlights how this is an attraction based around being drawn to somebody who is either mysteriously dangerous or openly broken, which only causes both of them to spiral the more times they interact. With this in mind, this is moreso contextual observations rather than definitive content, as the scripting for both of them is not incredible, with dialogue that can veer too heavily into spouting poetic jargon to the point of being needlessly cryptic and fanciful, but thankfully they are still decently handled leads, and the acting does help sell things. Park Hae-il plays Hae-jun with grounded stability but with just a twinge of vulnerable weakness to result in a decent portrayal of a familiar character, but the real star of the film is Tang Wei as Seo-rae, who is really able to capture the conflicted moral spectrum of the character very effectively to the point that it’s hard to truly pin her down. She doesn’t come across as totally evil, but there is something quite disturbing about her almost joyful attitude towards acting as this detective’s subject of obsession, and how she forces herself into being both his emotional destroyer and his emotional stabilizer. The supporting cast for the film is also pretty good. People like Lee Jung-hyun and Go Kyung-pyo as characters aren’t fleshed out very well, but are still acted fine, and people like Kim Shin-young, Seo Hyun-woo, Jung Young-Sook, Park Jeong-min and Park Yong-woo stand out nicely with only bit parts.

The film feels like it presents itself as weirder and quirkier than it arguably needs to be, and it can be a little hard to keep focus when something random occurs either from the visuals or the tone. It’s not like the film has any forceful humor or overly abstract imagery, but the way the film is shot, directed, and even sometimes scored keeps it from living in the realms of stable reality and always feels slightly off and weird, but not in a sense that feels like it benefits anything. However, much like how the rest of the film operates, while these aspects don’t work overall, there are times when they are done very well and very uniquely. The cinematography by Kim Ji-yong can sometimes feel a little randomly placed and hold on things that it probably didn’t need to, but other times is so picturesque and creates some fantastically seamless tracking shots that shows off the location of Ippon very nicely. The film has a very hazy look to it, with plenty of shrouded clouds, muted lighting, barren and cold looking apartment complexes, and a color palette that features a lot of greens and whites, looking like an upper-class living complex that has patches of mold growing throughout the cracks in the wall and drainpipes. It does help make the environment feel wet and oppressive, but also elegant and slightly mysterious. The editing by Kim Sang-bum can be a little rapid between cuts which can make certain scenes a little hard to follow and keep track of, but there are also moments where the scenes are interconnected perfectly, and the musical score by Jo Yeong-wook can feel a little light and theatrical for something that you’d expect to be a bit more grim and quiet, but it is a fantastically engaging piece that carries with it classic elements of traditional film noir but also a flair and energy you’d expect from something more modern, really creating something that is active and atmospheric, while still being very well composed and a nice blend of traditional and contemporary elements.

Decision to Leave was seen as an impressive film when it was released and many who had seen it were very surprised that it wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar for that year, and upon viewing the film, it both makes a lot of sense and no sense at all why it wasn’t there. On the one hand, this film is not on par with other movies in Park Chan-Wook’s filmography, or even in the line-up of other recent popular Korean content (with other examples like Parasite and Squid Game being a little more unique and coherent by comparison), but on the other hand, this is still a well-made movie that clearly shows the talent of everybody involved, and shows that as a director, Park Chan-wook is someone to look out for not only for his past work (which seems pretty incredible overall) but also his future projects as he continues to move his career forward. While it is a little unbalanced and all over the place, there are some strong highlights from a directing, writing, acting and visual standpoint which makes it a flick that’s warranting of a viewing.