Posted at 10:30 a.m.
The new offering by Park Chan-wook, whose best-known works are old boy (Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004) and Misssets itself apart from the Korean filmmaker’s previous films thanks to an approach that focuses more on intimate feelings.
Decision to leave is a detective drama with Hitchcockian accents, strongly tinged with romanticism, based on the archetype of the married cop, in this case completely subjugated by a woman suspected of having murdered her husband. Although we admire the elegance with which the filmmaker unfolds his story, it is clear that the attraction and the underground passion that the two protagonists feel for each other are more difficult to embody. You can also get lost in the convolutions of a scenario that sometimes lacks tone.
That said, admirers of Park Chan-wook’s cinema will find here the unique vision of a filmmaker who, once again, offers a visually splendid work, set with sumptuous framing. We will also appreciate this idea of having made the character of the suspicious widow a foreigner who does not fully master the Korean language. The latter is indeed interpreted by Tang Wei, an actress who was for a time on the blacklist of the Chinese authorities for having played in 2006 in Lust Cautiona remarkable historical drama from Ang Lee (which we suddenly want to see again!).
Facing her, Park Hae-il, seen in particular in Memories of Murder and The Host (two films by Bong Joon-ho), is up to the task, although the way the story is constructed does not really allow the two headliners to share a tangible bond. We look like this Decision to leave at a good distance, as if the empathetic current had trouble establishing itself between the characters and the spectator.
Winner of the director’s prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Decision to leave (Decision to Leave is the international title) is playing in the original Korean version with French subtitles.
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Police drama
Decision to leave
Park Chan-wook
With Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Go Kyung-pyo
2:18 a.m.