Decision to Leave
Romantic crime drama by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) about a detective who gets romantic feelings for the widow who is the main suspect in a murder case.
Hae-joon is a young, extremely talented detective in bustling Busan. When a man’s body is found at the foot of a nearby mountain, Hae-joon is assigned the case. This is how he meets the man’s beautiful, enigmatic wife, Seo-rae, who is seemingly unmoved by her husband’s death. Seo-rae appears to have a convincing alibi, yet Hae-joon continues to follow her. His curiosity turns into an obsession.
With his film adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel, THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook demonstrated that he knows how to build an elegant and suspenseful thriller full of plot twists. In DECISION TO LEAVE, he also gives a master class in the ingenious use of mobile phone technology. On paper, the plot reads like a Hollywood erotic thriller from the nineties, but the subtle and stately DECISION TO LEAVE is not about cheap thrills. The glorious lead role is played by Chinese star Tang Wei, known from Ang Lee’s LUST, CAUTION. The film was awarded with the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.