Decision to Leave
Hae-Joon, a seasoned detective, investigates the suspicious death of a man on a mountaintop. Soon, he begins to suspect Seo-rae, the deceased's wife, while being unsettled by his attraction to her.
- Released:
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
- Stars: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Lee Jung-hyun, Park Yong-woo, Go Kyung-pyo, Jung Yi-seo, Lee Hak-joo, Jeong Ha-dam, Lee Yong-nyeo, Jung Young-sook, Kim Shin-young, Park Jeong-min, Yoo Teo, Go Min-si, Seo Hyun-woo, Yoo Seung-mok, Kim Do-yeon, Jeong So-ri, Shin An-jin, Cha Seo-won, Joo In-young, Choi Sun-ja, Jin Yong-uk, Choi Dae-hoon, Kim Mi-hwa, Kwak Eun-jin, Ahn Seong-bong, Kim Gook-jin, Kim Sang-hyun
- Director: Park Chan-wook
Comments
- raptandy - 30 March 2024
All that glitters is not gold...
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It seems that this director has lost the skill to make good films. Compared to other Korean thrillers such as New World and Yellow Sea this is a rather poor effort. By trying to charm simultaneously both Chinese Censorship bureau and European festival board members, the director has made a film which is unable to decide which audience group it wants too target and at the end fails to satisfy either.
The presence of Tang Wei was probably a calculated move to guarantee the film will hit the Chinese screens. Most of the time, Decision to Leave plays like a less edgier version of modern Mainland noir such as Wild Goose Lake and Black Coal Thin Ice. Storyline is ludicrous perpetuates lots of old fashioned cliches from Asian love stories. Tang Wei is good, but there is no chemistry between the two leads, and the male protagonist is too bland in terms of appearance.
Flawless production design is nothing new in Korean cinema. As a matter of fact you will spend more time ogling over those speckless interior spaces rather than the personal dramas unfolding before your eyes.
One a positive note, at least there is the presence of former pop idol Lee Jyun Hun. Not that she does anything special in this film, but she is always good to look at. - justserag - 11 November 2023
Is this Park Chan-wook at his weakest?
Decision to Leave- Is this Park Chan-wook at his weakest?
- When Park Chan-wook is at his loosest most chaotic spontaneity, he's also at his weakest
- Cinematography & music are the key factors
- The plot is Shockingly similar to the Egyptian
- The supporting cast is bland while Park Hae-il is fairly good & Tang Wei is the most remarkable
- The film's ending is not anti-climactic, yet leaves you blandly vague
- The pacing is disruptive, and you're to choose whether to follow the romance or the mystery.
- mateuszmiter - 2 August 2023
It's a crime to write such good romance
Decision to Leave begins with a man failing from a steep peak, which is another case assigned to detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), who quickly assumes the man's wife, Seo-rae (Wei Tang) as one of his main suspects. The movie then very quickly drops tons of other information and plot twists, leaving us for the majority of it as confused and seeking answers as the main detective himself.
This structure and deadly tempo may be confusing to some people as it was for me. It's easy to get lost in all the nuisances of the investigation, especially since it feels like there are a few plot holes. Some pieces of alibi aren't that strong and could be easily tipped over. Nevertheless, the beauty of the romance between two main characters is so captivating and addicting, that you deliberately look down on these aspects and focus on the dynamic between them.
Decision to Leave is essentially mainly a romantic story of Hae-joon and Seo-rae. It's another one of love stories that have too many obstacles to ever become real and bear fruit-a concept so popular in culture, one could argue it's impossible to breathe new life into it. Yet, Park Chan-wook manages to do so.
The true essence of the movie lies in its attention to detail. For one reason, it's a crime film, so it's quite self-explanatory why the director gives them so much attention in terms of plot. But these details are also the main tool to tell a blossoming love story between Hae-joon and Seo-rae.
When watching Decision to Leave, viewers are eager to see the romance finally come alive in its full form, especially since the movie treats us with numerous minor gestures from both characters. We're practically addicted to the chemistry between the two and are rooting for a happy ending for them, though, deep down we know it's not meant to be.
Both main actors make every effort to keep us hooked, and with nostalgic, foggy scenery, we watch the film as if we were in hypnosis. It works so well we overlook the tiny holes in the script. Although the director makes sure it has a lot of breadcrumbs to pick as we watch it, though, it's impossible to do so at the first viewing, which makes a rewatch almost mandatory.
Outdoor scenery isn't the only strong point in Decision to Leave's astonishing graphic storytelling. It also presents interior scenes so well-framed, adding another reason why you stay involved until the very end.
With such unique plot, Decision to Leave is a movie flawed in a number of ways. It's simultaneously so compelling it just lives rent-free in your head and heart weeks after you've watched it, which is, frankly speaking, a notable achievement. - johnwick-75102 - 29 December 2022
Mountain and Sea
This film is another feather to directors crown who already has proved himself with Oldboy and The handmaiden. This time with Decision to leave, director totally brought out his best in the form of symbolism and redefined modern noir. Such a fantastic idea to disquise a love story as murder mystry. Lead of film has done justice to the roles. Their chemistry and subtle delivery of emotions is well captured. With brilliant cinematography, top quality score and perfect editing this film shows its technical victory in all 2hr 15min runtime. So enjoy the deep, emotional story of The Mountain and Sea. - michael-kerrigan-526-124974 - 15 December 2022
2 and a half hours of head scratching
So - I love film. I like films to be thought provoking. I like films that take me out of my comfort zone. I like to be challenged. The so called 2 inch barriers of subtitles at the bottom of the screen have never been a barrier to me. Whilst not a Korean film buff, I've seen Chan-Wook's revenge trilogy; The Handmaiden et al and thoroughly enjoyed them without thinking they were masterpieces. So, with this film, I thought I was not too far off target audience. I have to say, that Decision to Leave is one of the most confusing, contrived, pretentious and ultimately disappointing movies I've ever seen. The first 30 minutes are full of imaginations, flashbacks and/or flash forwards and you can only hope they come together to make some sense. And they kinda do towards the end of the first act, but it's hard work. And then you get act two. Start again with all these complex contrivances. I like to watch films to be entertained, not to have to watch them multiple times to get the point of them. I watched the film until the bitter end - nearly 2.5 hours of confusion with some good acting and cinematography to boot. Is that entertainment? Not in my world. - fraser-simons - 26 November 2022
Park knocks it out of the park
The fun thing about this movie is it's peculiar and emotionally devestating, and I wasn't even ready for it having seen a few other Park Chan-Wook films. They're always a bit off kilter and looking for empathy in all the wrong places. It's almost lynch-Ian, stylistically. Like a fugue dream or hyper real, yet also concerned with verisimilitude in really small moments between the characters too.
Sure, it's about a detective looking to solve a crime, even as he ironically knows very little about himself, and thinks he's happy when he clearly isn't. When he meets the window and suspect of the murder, his life begins to unravel and parts of himself are drawn out that go unacknowledged, a phenomena the suspect experiences as well. There really isn't knowing a person, including yourself, without the refraction of other people. And some people simply draw us out.
So, while it IS about solving the crime and whether or not the widow did it, but as with most good stories, the thing that they are ostensibly about end up actually being about (something close to) "everything". - itrevorallen - 10 November 2022
Symbolism deeper than the sea
Movie Score Breakdown / Appreciation Paragraph / Perception of Symbolism
Story 8/10 Intensity 8/10 Cinematography 9/10 Emotion 10/10 Scenery 10/10 Acting 10/10 Symbolism 10/10, too much?
Other reviews have already summed the plot up, and wonderfully expressed how FANTASTIC this movie's pacing, editing, cinematography, and story blends together. So instead lets dive a bit deeper into some symbolism. Disclaimer: this is purely my perception and I could be 100% wrong, that's the beauty of this level of symbolism. DISCLAIMER #2: I think many users who didn't enjoy this film took no note of the depth this film goes into.
The Sea, and the Mountains: We begin this movie in the mountains, and end in the sea. And everything between is a descent and ascend to or from one, to the other. Tang Wei likely represents the sea as this is where she returns. However, she is also said to have a mountain assigned to her by her family, and her phone's wallpaper and case are both the sea and the mountains depending on when we see them, and which phone we are looking at. She also choses to wear clothes that are green or blue, and later on an interesting comment is made regarding different characters seeing the colors differently where only our protagonist sees her in blue.
The mist: Hae Jun's wife never leaves the fog of Ipo. She is shrouded throughout the film and honestly, clueless. Hae Jun and Tang Wei are free from the mist, until Hae Jun choses to return to his wife. This lasts 13 months until Tang Wei moves to Ipo and the fog immediately lifts but just for these characters, when they go to the mountain and officially address their feelings for the first time. This is when we see Tang Wei not push our MC off the cliff and can truly confirm she isn't a psychopath murderer, as much as she is in love with him. Once they return to the town, he even remarks "It didn't snow here", for our 2 lovers the snow brought with clarity, clarity that was only shared between the two of them.
The crow and the turtle: This one's tough, and honestly I am not the right person to answer this one. It is very likely Park knows something about crow & turtle symbolism between the Chinese/Korean cultures and that these may have represented something much deeper than I can fathom. But my simplistic explanation: the crow is the sky (mountain) and the turtle is the sea. The crow dies, and the turtles are set free. The turtles are also set free in a misplaced scene between the love tension we are constantly indulged in. After the crow died Jun keeps a feather and seems to hold it close to him. The last time we see it is post 13month gap, when the new female officer picks it up and he slaps it from her hand and places it back in the safety of a pen mug. Clearly the deceased symbol of Tang Wei's mountain association was something dear to the character.
That's where I'm going to leave it as I feel this review could otherwise be a short novel. Things not addressed that are most peculiar: was Hae Jun truly abused? We see she faked a great deal of the scenarios she was placed in such as the police ravaging her house. Was there more to her arrival from China by boat and trauma regarding the 10 days at SEA covered in feces? Did Jun's wife leave him? We see her leave with her recently divorced June coworker, both with luggage and then Jun is sleeping alone with his CPAP machine. Also why is she carrying away the last turtle Jun had brought home?
TA, JV, AA. - ta-98251 - 2 November 2022
Not for me
One of South Korea's submission to the 2022 Oscars from the director of Oldboy, The Handmaiden and the Vengeance films...
Not much to say about this unfortunately apart from there not being enough init for me to enjoy. A super slow burn crime drama (which I can enjoy) which doesn't give you enough to keep you interested or entertained.
It's one of those films which likely has a lot going on when you dive deeper into the cinematography, direction and subtle cues but also one that won't give everybody enough to stay invested throughout the film notwithstanding the fact that you have to pay close attention because the film is subtitled.
