"Decision To Leave" -- Movie Review

 

Midway through The 60^th New York Film Festival, I attended a screening of the new Korean crime drama, “Decision To Leave”.

Synopsis

When a detective is assigned to investigate a man’s death, what happens when he falls in love with the suspect?

Story

When an older man is found dead near a mountain, Detective Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is assigned to investigate.  Was it murder?  Suicide?  Accident?  Once the Detective begins interviewing, what starts out as clear eventually turns muddy.  The most obvious place to start is with his wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), a beautiful young Chinese woman who apparently was in a marriage of convenience.  Were the two happily married?  It would seem so, at least on the surface.  But the more time Hae-jun spends with his investigation, the more attraction develops between the two – further complicated by the fact that he’s married.

Detective Hae-jun is very suspicious of Seo-rae – and with good reason.  As the detective proceeds with collecting evidence, much of the widow’s alibi does not add up.  He becomes obsessed with this case, which causes both his insomnia and the relationship with his wife to deteriorate to the point that he moves into a different apartment.  The more his relationship with Seo-rae turns more personal than professional, the more Hae-jun’s judgement becomes clouded.  His supervisor sees that he’s spending far too much time on this case and orders him to wrap it up as soon as possible.  He shortly thereafter closes the case and Seo-rae is off the hook.   

Eventually, Hae-jun and his wife move to another city for his health, where he transfers to the local police department.  About a year later, when he and his wife are shopping at a market, they run into Seo-rae, who has since remarried – another older man, but this one is something of a television celebrity.  He’s a professional stock market analyst who offers investment advice, so she once again finds herself living a rather luxurious lifestyle.  Things become quite complicated when Seo-rae’s new husband also mysteriously turns up dead at their mansion.  Is this merely a coincidence or can Hae-jun prove Seo-rae is a murderer?    

Review

If you are a lover of the genre known as film noir or a fan of Hitchcock’s movies, then “Decision To Leave” is most definitely for you.  Be assured that you are in good hands with Park Chan-wook as the director of this film; he’s clearly a master at his craft and makes some rather amazing choices in order to tell his story visually.  His characters are obviously seriously flawed, broken human beings, which makes you empathize with them; ultimately, they are just looking for love in life – and tragically, that love turns out to be with each other.  Without giving away spoilers, the denouement of this motion picture is both original and heart-rending for the main characters. 

Now might be a good time to discuss South Korean film.  If you are new to movies from this country, you’ll be in for quite a treat.  If possible, try to see as many as you can, either in theaters or via streaming.  Clearly, the South Korean filmmakers have been immersed themselves in motion pictures from other countries, most notably the United States; they have been studied them well and learned a considerable amount.  Many of them have a look and feel – at least thematically – of some of the best American-made motion pictures.  The success of films like “Minari” and “Parasite” prove that they may soon exceed movies from this country.    

Through interpreters, there was a post-screening conversation with Director Park Chan-wook and star Park Hae-il.  When the director was asked if “Decision To Leave” was a detective story with a romance or a romance with a detective story, he replied that he first wanted to do a detective story, then the idea of the romance came later because at first, he had no plot.  The song “Mist” is used crucially in the story; it is an old Korean song which everyone in that country knows.  Since he wanted to also do a movie about this song, that’s when he realized that it needed to include a romance.  The original version was sung by a woman, then it was remade with a male vocalist; the director reunited the two (who are now in their 70’s) to sing it as a duet for this motion picture.