One of the most celebrated filmmakers in the world, South Korean director Park Chan-wook returns in 2022 with a highly anticipated release: Decision to Leave. The movie made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it made a splash, before moving on to streaming on December 9, 2022, on Mubi. In the grand scheme of Park’s filmography, Decision to Leave is fairly unique. Park has become known for the shocking content in his movies, especially with the Vengeance Trilogy of the early-2000s, but Decision to Leave returns to his roots, seen in his early work like 2000’s Joint Security Area.
Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) and Park Hae-il (Memories of Murder) star in the leading roles. Tang Wei portrays Song Seo-rae, a Chinese immigrant to South Korea who becomes the prime suspect in her husband’s death — he fell off of his favorite mountain while hiking. Park Hae-il is the police detective assigned to the case, but things do not go as planned. He becomes obsessed and falls in love with Seo-rae, leading him down a dangerous path as the movie begins to twist into a cat-and-mouse game. It is this game and the cinematic techniques put into Decision to Leave that ultimately make it the best love story of 2022.
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A Police Drama
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The film’s premise is this: a police officer falls in love with a suspect in a murder case. At first, it looks like Seo-rae’s husband’s death is an accident, a suicide in the making. He believes her to be involved with the murder, as many variables point to her as a culprit, but the more he becomes obsessed with her, the less he initially believes her guilt to be true. However, once they separate and her next husband, several cities away, is found dead, it becomes increasingly obvious that Seo-rae may truly be involved with murder, and if Hae-jun is not careful, he might be next. It’s the archetypical story of the temptress, reminiscent of the femme fatales that existed in the realms of 1940s film noirs.
While the police procedural adds a unique twist to the narrative as a whole, Decision to Leave weaves a complicated thread when it comes to the love story it tells. Hae-jun and Seo-rae dangle somewhere between lust and love, and while they may not admit they’re in love, their actions suggest there’s something more than what’s spoken and on the surface. It becomes a searing tragedy in the making during its final arc, which would be its outcome even with Seo-rae’s decisions. The world loves a good doomed love story, and as much as Hae-jun defies the expectations and duties set out by his job, there would always be an inner conflict when it came to his feelings towards her. Thus begins an internal conflict where he is caught between his job and a woman, forcing him to make decisions when the time comes to it.
Decision to Leave largely stays true to the genre it is confined within. In the norms dictated by Hollywood and Western movies, a romance of this scale would have to be fiery, with intimate scenes scattered throughout. The viewer does not get that in this film; the story largely relies on chemistry, tension, and worldbuilding to make the romance elements work. In a movie, book, or television show where the characters need to reassert their love for each other by speaking it into existence, it can cast a layer of doubt about whether they care as much as they say they do. Decision to Leave is a classic example of the storytelling method of show don’t tell, which makes it even more romantic and borderline erotic.
Visual Journeys
It is no secret that a Park Chan-wook movie is almost always a visual experience. The Handmaiden, one of the best releases of 2016, was full of memorable moments that looked breathtaking on a movie screen. In Decision to Leave, Park has done it yet again. Some would point to his influences for this movie in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, especially as this film tackles similar subjects and themes. Some have compared Decision to Leave to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which is considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
However, the nature of the visuals, makes the story even more romantic. The camera switches at times to the perspective seen through Jang Hae-jun’s surveillance methods, watching Tang Wei’s Seo-rae from a distance. Because she ultimately is aware that Hae-jun is watching her, purposely playing up the dramatics to fit the mold of the narrative he is concocting about her, it makes everything happening even more purposeful. The romantic and sexual tension only increases with scenes like this, and although the movie is quite tame when it comes to their actual relationship, the way these characters are framed and seen is through a particular lens that furthers the overarching love story.
There’s one defining detail, too, that makes Decision to Leave striking as a romance story: these characters never outright admit they care for and love each other. Signature elements of Park’s style are scattered throughout the movie, ones falling within the realm of being considered grotesque. But as Seo-rae and Hae-jun text each other back and forth, the camera spectating how they longingly gaze at the other person during the act, a picture can say a thousand more words than a single line of dialogue.
