Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: DECISION TO LEAVE [Fantastic Fest 2022 - Austin,Texas]

The aspect of a love story wrapped in a concoction of fear and intelligence mixed with lust is an interesting mixture especially when the violence and sex, if any, is a kept to a minimum. With "Decision To Leave", Park Chan-Wook pays reverence in a way to Hitchcock while making an element all his own. Detective stories seem to fascinate him but it has to be done in a lyrical sense with a changing sense of direction to make it viable in his eyes. All of his characters are flawed and make wrong choices but it is about the detail of their dereliction. Because of its detective/suspect approach, "Basic Instinct" as a basis or comparison comes to mind but that was more about the primal nature of sex and murder. "Decision To Leave" is much more subtle and emotional yet it wants to lead you there. There is anticipation that it will happen and the beautiful score and song choice speak to this. The great thing is that Chan-Wook uses this as misdirects as if his characters think 4 steps ahead and then jump two steps back.

Hae-jun (Park Hae-Il) sees sometihng in Seo Rae (Tang Wei) that leads him astray changing his perception of what his life and job might be. Catherine Trammel in “Basic Instinct” did the same thing to Nick Curran because it is about the beauty of being pursued. Chan-Wook does an interesting thing at times discussing and showing the details of how things are happening but the reality is that it is the perspective of a certain person thinking what the other person is doing and thereby might have a different connection point or is missing a detail. Both Seo and Hae-Jun both do this but for vastly different reasons. Seo is a very different animal in that her background and what she does is kept to the fringe elements. There is a vast amount of information that she keeps to herself and Chan-Wook keeps from the audience. Hae-Jun is more of an open book but that itself is supposed to be likely a misdirect which Director Chan-Wook alluded to in a post screening Q&A at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Hae-Il is know for characters with a dark side in Korea and some of his most popular roles in Asia play to that. However that is not part of the English speaking country vernacular as much so that angle is lost on some international audiences It is the fact that Hae-jun wants to act but doesn't. The aspect of insomnia which affects the character could point to something else as well including hallucinations but intead the surface projection is that it becomes a motion of flirting. The aspect of the detective's marriage and the lack of connection is a little confusing for a good part of the movie before Chan-Wook puts it back in focus in the last third of the movie but it is almost like he got carried away with a certain part of the story and decided not to refocus until it was almost out of range. And those scenes of Seo and Hae-junare worth it because you become invested in these two.

You understand both of their reasoning at an angle because the whole point is to be unreasonable. The acting on many levels for the two leads is impeccable but towards the end, it almost borders on melodrama but also a sense of irony. The fact that Wei is Chinese and sometimes uses an app to translate feelings into Korean as a plot device is an interesting function. And of course certain technical details that Chan-Wook does are stylistic flourishes that come out of nowhere where you think he is going to do something big and then dials it back but with almost a mythic beauty to it. It is that dichotomy that makes the film work because again it pushes you in one direction and takes you in another.

It is a thriller but also a love story. It is lustful and intense and yet there are few if any acts of violence or sex. That restraint in a way makes it more lyrical but not less affecting. It might be antithetical to some of Chan-Wook's fans but his approach seems to be to try to do different genres but change the style completely away to make it feel different from anything else he has done. And yet it feels like him. While the end tries to be a little too symbolic, it does ring true despite the fact that the whole aspect of the chase perhaps is to get caught but the ongoing theme is that there is a beauty in the unresolved. B+

By Tim Wassberg