Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook took home Cannes’ Best Director award for this enchanting, exquisitely seductive neo-noir romance – his first film since The Handmaiden (MIFF 2016).

After lamenting the lack of interesting cases in Busan, scrupulous detective Hae-joon lands a whale – a possible homicide – when he’s enlisted to investigate the death of a man whose body is found at the bottom of a cliff. The prime suspect is the man’s beautiful Chinese wife, Seo-rae, who is suspiciously unmoved by the events that have left her widowed. But Hae-joon’s interest in the woman quickly transcends the professional, and she appears to reciprocate his nascent desire. Things are about to get complicated.

With Decision to Leave, Park makes it a Cannes award hat trick, adding Best Director to his Grand Prix (for Oldboy, MIFF 2004) and Jury Prize (for Thirst, MIFF 2009). Even while recalling classics such as Basic Instinct and Vertigo, his latest feels refreshingly unpredictable – a twisty, bewitching love story wrapped in a thoroughly 21st-century murder mystery that’s deeply erotic. Actors Park Hae-il and Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) are magnetically restrained as detective and prey play an intricate game of emotional cat and mouse, but it’s not just their palpable desire leaving viewers breathless; Kim Ji-yong’s cinematography is breathtakingly expressive. Throughout it all, Park peppers in his trademark humour and playfulness, proving yet again that he’s a master of the form.

“Luscious … Crafted with unforced humor, ravishing visuals and commanding maturity, Decision to Leave intoxicates with its potent brew of love, emotional manipulation – or is it? – and obsession.” – Hollywood Reporter