BY: IRVIN RIVERA

Park Chan Wook’s 2022 film “Decision to Leave,” is a lot about show, don’t tell. It’s an understatement to say that the devil is in the details. Every small action, every facial expression, each language translated, the nuances in cinematography, the angles and composition of the shots, the clothes, the accessories worn- all plays a part in this masterfully crafted, dark, romantic thriller.

The film opens with moving abstract colors, bokehs and patterns that bleeds among each other in harmony, much like how this narrative unfolds. Love, vengeance, desire, hope is not contained in black and white spaces, but rather explored more freely and is open to the audience’s interpretation and personal biases.

Seasoned detective Hae-Joon (played by Hae Il Park), investigates the suspicious death of a man on a mountaintop. Throughout the investigation, he met one of the suspects, the deceased’s wife, Seo-rae (played by Tang Wei), and eventually got entangled inside a dark, romantic labyrinth of mystery, desire, intrigue and lies.

I’ve always been visually stimulated by a lot of Korean film’s cinematography. The visual language of this film is so rich that for the most part, I just want to take mental snapshots of my favorite scenes while watching.

As soon as I saw that Park Chan-Wook (who also directed Oldboy, The Handmaiden, etc) released another film, I got excited and had to make sure that I watch it in theatres right away. And it was a great decision. 

The ebb and flow of tension is the heart that connects the pieces of this film together.

The tension caused by the murder mysteries, the tension from Seo-rae and Hae-Joon’s language barrier, the tension from the pent-up desires, created this dynamic, layered film that demands your attention, and will haunt you days after watching it.