Film Shapes

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...