Decision to Leave

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
  • glenaobrien - 1 April 2024
    A compelling Korean noir that messes with time and perspective
    In Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook has created a Korean noir that messes with time, perspective and narrative structure in a way that disorients but also engages the viewer. The film it most brings to mind is Hitchcock's Vertigo (1948) with a policeman obsessed with an enigmatic woman and its themes of suicide and loss. One moment detective Jang Hae-Joon (Park Hae-il) is watching Song Seo-Rae (Tang Wei) from his car, then he observes himself from the seat of car, walking into the room to speak with her. They move in and out of events they experienced together as if they were able to defy time and space, inserting their past and present selves into the moments that have created their relationship. At any moment conversations and characters are seamlessly relocated to different settings at different moments in the timeline. It's a clever and meticulously constructed technique that walks the tightrope between experimentalism and incoherence. The pacing is slow but the narrative and filming techniques have an almost hypnotic effect that keeps you glued for its admittedly somewhat lengthy runtime. Chan-wook (director of Oldboy, Stoker, and The Handmaiden to name a few) demonstrates again that he is in the front rank of Korean film.
  • HuzaifaHusaini - 14 November 2023
    "A MUST WATCH"
    Decision to Leave is a potent brew of love, emotional manipulation , and obsession. Though it hasn't got over the top action sequences like earlier Park Chan Wook work "Oldboy" it hasn't got the beautiful costumes and art of "The Handmaiden" but what it has got is it's heart and soul in place with strong screenplay, powerful performance from leads specially Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) is a perfect choice. Park Hae il has played an Insomniac as good as Stellan Skarsgard and Al Pacino. Cinematography is beautiful, It has got beautiful green and blue colour pallets like Chan Wook Park's previous work. Music is Beautiful and Haunting at same time like Director's previous work. The last act left me breathless and restless. Decision to Leave is another gem in Park Chan Wook's neckless. A must watch indeed...