A Dangerous Allure Drives Park Chan-Wook’s Film ‘Decision To Leave’

As a detective, Hae-joon is very focused on his work. He finds it hard to let unsolved cases go. A central character in Park Chan-wook’s film, Decision to Leave, Hae-joon investigates so fastidiously that his determination intrudes on other aspects of his life. He can’t sleep, which means he’s always running on empty, but he’s running nevertheless, sometimes for days on end. The detective, played by Park Hae-il, pays minimal attention to his marriage, but keeps a wall full of grisly crime photos to spur on his investigations. It has been suggested to him that those crime scene photos are the reason he can’t sleep.

When he meets Seo-rae, played by award-winning Chinese actress Tang Wei, he ignores the immediate attraction he feels because she’s a suspect in her husband’s death. Or at least he tries to ignore the way he feels. He stakes out her house, but the attention he pays to the details of her life might also be described as stalking. Hae-joon’s younger partner, played by Go Kyung-po, is convinced that Seo-rae played a part in her husband’s death, but Hae-joon is not so sure. He just needs to keep watching her for a little while longer.

When he’s watching her, it’s as if he’s in the room with her, which might be exactly where he wants to be. Oddly, when he’s near her, he can comfortably fall asleep. She’s aware that he’s watching when she consumes ice cream, talks to a cat or watches TV, and she also begins to watch him. Is she trying to understand him or deciding how to use his interest?

The storyline includes myriad twists and turns, with shifting perspectives that are pleasingly reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. That’s no surprise since Park once said he decided to become a director after seeing Vertigo. Each twist further complicates the mystery of who Seo-rae is. Is she an innocent victim or a heartless killer and does it even matter?

Decision to Leave is the story of an obsession, the kind of crazy urge to be with someone that makes a person abandon reason. Park’s film career has explored various manifestations of obsession. His 2016 film The Handmaiden is an erotic tale of love, obsession and revenge. Park’s internationally renowned Vengeance Trilogy, which consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Lady Vengeance (2005), might focus on revenge, yet the desire for revenge is also an obsession. As a filmmaker he is drawn to examine the subject, much the way the fastidious Hae-Joon is drawn to the unpredictable Seo-rae.

Moody and masterfully done, his film Decision To Leave teases mystery after mystery, leaving viewers to wonder where the thin line between love and romantic obsession really lies.

Decision To Leave was shown at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won Park the award for Best Director, and has been selected as South Korea’s entry for best international feature film at the 2023 Academy Awards. Distributed by Mubi, the murder-mystery-romance will premiere in New York and LA theaters on Oct. 14.

Park Hae-il has appeared in dozens of Korean films including Hansan: Rising Dragon, The Last Princess and The King’s Letters. Tang Wei is a popular Chinese TV and film actress, the winner of a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Golden Horse Film Festival Award and a Baeksang Arts Award.