Decision to Leave

After a man falls to his death from a mountain, the investigating detective ends up meeting, and ultimately falling for, the dead man's mysterious wife.

When it comes to Park Chan-wook, I feel like most people are all about Oldboy, his tale of shockingly vicious revenge, with its iconic “hammer versus a hallway of thugs” fight sequence, but for me, it’s The Handmaiden, the erotic and labyrinthine heist/con movie packed with deceit, betrayal, and more than a couple of Ben Wa balls. Either way, whichever one floats your boat, you’re a fan of a truly audacious filmmaker.

But this time out, at least for me, Decison to Leave, while an incredible-looking film, and a well-made thriller, when compared to his previously mentioned films, was a bit of a disappointment.

I just didn’t connect with it.

Simply put, this is the story of a forlorn detective who falls for his beautiful suspect, the wife of a mountain climber who fell to his death… or was he pushed? It’s both a classic of the mystery genre, immediately—perhaps overbearingly—familiar, but also a remix of the tropes, playing with time and perspectives and points of view, all while being an intensely human film with the most intense emotions, but all while featuring characters who are very restrained when it comes to displaying those emotions, and that… I think that is reflected too much in the tone of the movie. Everything felt like it was moving underwater, too dream-like. More than anything else, to me, the film felt too restrained. The classic dance between the detective and his alluring and enigmatic suspect is great, but… The turns are surprising, but… The reveals are all a shock, but… The ending goes hard, but…

That seems to be the whole movie for me.

To quote P.W. Herman “Everyone I know has a big but…”

This is a film that felt like it was constantly on the edge of a boil, or to mix my metaphors, it smolders throughout, but as the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but feel like that boil was never truly reached, that the fire never truly caught. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is a sumptuous film, gorgeous in every way, and like I said, dream-like in its presentation, and I would expect no less, but what I assumed was a slow burn while watching the film, actually ended up feeling like more of a sputtering out as the film came to an end, despite being really well done.

Which is a disappointment.

If you like Park Chan-wook’s work, then you’ll definitely have to see this film, and I totally support that. I think it’ll be worth it. It’s gorgeous and well-made. And even though I felt disappointed at the end, that disappointment pokes at me… Maybe I missed something? Maybe there’s more there? I feel like I will eventually rewatch this at some point, and give it another shot, but I’m not so sure it will affect my initial response. We’ll see, I guess.

Anyway, check it out. It was on a lot of end of the year lists, so who knows, maybe it was just me. But I will say this, if you like Park Chan-wook, then you will probably be walking into this film expecting something that it’s just not interested in delivering.