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Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook has a fine back catalogue, full of brutal beauty and oddly juxtaposing shots. His 'Vengeance Trilogy' alone (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) would be enough to give him a seat at the table, but fill that CV out with Thirst, Stoker and The Handmaiden, and there's some heft right there. His latest film, Decision to Leave, won him the best director gong at Cannes back May 2022, and it's a just reward.

The film begins quite rapidly, getting a number of things out in a flurry. We meet two detectives, Jang Hae-joon (played by Park Hae-il) and Soo-wan (Go Kyung-Pyo), learn a bit about their cases, their family life and office hierarchies. While attempting to nail one murder case shut, the body of a climber is discovered at the foot of a gnarly-looking peak. Accident? Suicide? Something more tasty? The dead man's young Chinese wife, Song Seo-rae, impeccably played by Tang Wei (from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution and Michael Mann's Blackhat), is interviewed and cleared, but not before Detective Jang takes a shine to her. There are numerous little details that make this an intriguing viewing - Soo-wan apoplectic that Hae-joon ordered the good sushi for Seo-rae; Hae-joon's controlling but sweet wife, Jeong-ahn (Lee Jung-hyun); Seo-rae burying ravens presented to her by a stray cat; Hae-joon's attempts to beat his insomnia - there are plenty of cards up Park's sleeves.

The structure is interesting as well. The whole film seems to finish (unsatisfyingly) early, only to lurch into a third, more melodramatic act. This is both necessary and slightly disappointing, as there are a few questions of motivation that I couldn't quite get a handle on. It's also where the relationship between Hae-joon and Seo-rae gets knottier, strengthening the characters no end. Park uses all his tools throughout, particularly in placing the two protagonists in scenes where they clearly aren't (or weren't) together. It's discombobulating to begin with but soon becomes a great stylistic flourish.

There are some cracking lines by Park and regular co-writer, Chung Seo-kyung - "Murder is like smoking, it's only hard the first time." - and the plot leans into a Korean noir, replete with femme fatale, a dozy patsy and bodies racking up. This isn't a perfect film, it runs a bit long and there were a few edges I couldn't square off, but certainly there's enough eccentricity and emotion to make this a watchable slice of Korean 'post' New Wave.

Decision to Leave finishes tonight (Jan 1st) at the Somerville Auditorium at UWA for the Perth Festival but will hopefully get a cinematic release sometime this year (2023).

See also:

Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) and his first film in English, Stoker (2013) are well worth a look, but you can't go wrong with any of his films, really.

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