Decision to Leave: A Hypnotic Romantic Thriller Amongst the Best of 2022
By Asma Ibrahim
Decision to Leave Korean-language posters for Cannes Film Festival (Image via KPop Post)
Decision to Leave, the latest film from celebrated director Park Chan-wook, is lovingly made with a deliberately sombre tone that suits the storyline and foreshadows the events to come. To my delight, it begins as a classic detective story, a childhood obsession of mine, but soon develops into a tale of longing and twisted romance. The film follows formidable police officer Jang Hae-jun, who is assigned to investigate the death of a hiker. While investigating, he slowly falls in love with the hiker’s Chinese wife, Song Seo-rae. We watch the case unravel until Hae-jun is eventually forced to choose between his duty and love.
The film begins in the mountains but ends by the sea, and these two recurring themes help split the film into two halves. The closure of the hiker case, which marks the end of the first half, is deceptively conclusive, as the tale of the dazed police officer Hae-jun and his suspect-turned-paramour Seo-rae continues in the seaside town of Ipo. The second part of the film focuses on the aftermath of Hae-jun’s choice between duty and love, and Seo-rae’s return to his life, entangled in yet another death. Seen from another angle, the ending of part one marks another beginning entirely;, while Hae-jun’s love for Seo-rae ended once he spoke of it, hers began when he confessed it. Indeed, the first half of the film focuses on the affection and obsession he develops for her, whereas the second half spotlights the depth of Seo-rae’s emotional attachment. It is worth noting that one of the great achievements of this film is how Park Chan-wook skillfully depicts their tense but sensual affair, without ever needing to include scenes of a sexual nature.
The height of Hae-jun’s love for Seo-rae is expressed in the greatest gesture of love he is able to express - covering up Seo-rae’s crime, the greatest transgression possible as an officer of the law. Such an action is not without consequences - the morally upstanding officer Hae-jun can no longer live in peace. His feelings have jeopardized his career, his conscience bothers him, and a change is necessary. The second half of the film is set 13 months later, and Hae-jun now lives with his wife in Ipo. He is continually plagued with insomnia, his face is gaunt and his demeanour is restlessresetless. We watch the slow deterioration of his marriage as he struggles with his past. Unable to move on from unresolved cases, his mind refuses him rest - except, of course, when he is soothed by the gentle presence of Seo-rae. Such sweet temptation.
Still from Decision to Leave (Image via IMDb)
Meanwhile, Seo-rae has wound up marrying the sweet-talking TV personality Lim Ho-sin, and reappears in expensive clothing and make-up. She pops up in Ipo with her husband, and in an encounter fraught with tension, it becomes immediately clear that the thread of fate connecting Hae-jun and Seo-rae is yet to be severed. Soon afterwards, we find ourselves observing a familiar scene: Seo-rae’s husband has died in mysterious circumstances, and she is a suspect. This time, while being interrogated, she isn’t treated to an expensive premium sushi lunch box like before; she is merely tossed what looks like a Korean hotdog. Insubstantial and cheap, it pales in comparison to the occasion when our protagonist first began to feel the pangs of infatuation. For Seo-rae, sitting across from Hae-jun in a police station again is itself an act of love and sacrifice. Her feelings burn strong at this point, and she reinserts herself into his life with uncommon bravery. This is her act - she sets off a chain of events with deliberation and determination, then ends things on her own terms. The film concludes with the greatest act of love and sacrifice she can offer, a tragic ending that keeps her beloved safe but with her memory forever in his mind.
The ending is so powerful that it felt impossible to move out of my seat. I suspect I was not the only member of the audience who felt the heavy ending so viscerally. Another reflection on this ending scene adds a layer of romance to their dynamic; Hae-jun, a solid pillar in the police force and a reliable rock for Seo-rae, represents the mountain to Seo-rae’s sea. In one of the final shots at the beach, the mountain of sand eroding away after exposure to the waves can be read as the firm and staunch figure of Hae-jun falling apart due to Seo-rae’s influence and sacrifice, marking him forever as a fallen man.
Still from Decision to Leave (Image via The Irish Times)
My experience of Tang Wei, the Chinese actress who plays Seo-rae, in the past has been limited to the Ang Lee masterpiece Lust, Caution - a film that undoubtedly brought her great success. I had not expected to find her leading a Korean film, but she excelled nonetheless. The use of foreign actors and characters has steadily become more commonplace in East Asian cinema, but it is often without much success. It is always a relief when these foreign elements are not restricted to the cringe-inducing roles of Western (usually American) businessmen and/or thugs. Tang Wei’s foreignness is also artfully laced into the story. Language miscommunication is particularly utilised in the first half of the film, and, combined with Seo-rae’s shy demeanour, helps to paint her as the innocent that our protagonist so desperately wants her to be. That the audience is so willing to believe some of her miscommunications - for example, when Seo-rae accidentally tells a cat to bring her ‘the head of that police officer’ rather than his heart - is a marker of the versatility displayed by Tang Wei, and the haze of Hae-jun’s insomnia through which we view the film.
The title of the film, ‘Decision to Leave’, teases us with its ambiguity. On multiple occasions a character decides to leave something or someone. Hae-joon leaves the case unsolved, and then leaves his paramour in Busan. Seo-Rae, having already left her native country, leaves behind her marriage, and eventually Busan too. Her final decision in this film is to leave Hae-jun, and as the waves roll back and forth on the shore at the end of the film, they strongly echo the acts of entering and leaving or living and dying.
Overall, Decision to Leave is a strong film on Park Chan-wook’s growing list of credits. It boasts an unpredictable but gripping storyline, excellent acting and a dash of daring cinematography, a triple-act that has ranked it amongst the best films of 2022.