Great movie. Impressive noir about the gentle touch of souls, including suspense and a box of Hitchcock movies. The plot cannot be told, the charm of the historical threads and the taste for this film are lost. In terms of directing. And the script design is a masterpiece film. There is maturity, and excellent style, strong editing scenes and beautiful final point. Great acting by Tan Wei and Park Hae-il. Tan Wei without a single bed scene shows So much tension, wrapped in a sex fan, that's breathtaking. In addition, Park Chan-ook here scatters as The line of the genre is also a decently assembled detective, who confidently brings the picture to catharsis. I thought, That in the middle of this strongest in all components of the film appeared the Director a little caution in terms of disclosure of the storyline, up to impartiality, but this impression was evaporated, thanks to the aesthetic graceful ribbon cut. A very powerful film. There was a lot of talk about this painting in Cannes. And absolutely deserved. I recommend it. 10/10.👍 Review written on October 20, 2022 – Olya Grinevskaya (Alenushka).
The movie didn't touch it. The option where the video, the effects, the art of shooting, even the innovation of shooting — everything is at a high level, and the content is empty. Love? I didn't. Detective? Well, he's a detective in Antarctica.
It is difficult to empathize with a detective who is good because he is a professional, but at the same time unprofessionally falls in love with a suspect, and for some reason you do not believe in his love, even though you crack.
So is the heroine. It seems that she pretends to be like the character Sharon Stone from “Basic Instinct”, but her creators for some reason decided to “soften” despite the fact that again, and again, and again, do not believe in her love.
The final scene is spectacular, and somehow sad from it. But given that throughout the film the presence of true love between the characters is not proven, all these final throwing and shuffling for some reason inconclusive.
What did you particularly like about the movie? This is when the hero is moved through space by the power of his thought. Then he watches the object from the car, then suddenly his ghost sits next to the object and only he does not touch it. Spectacular. Beautiful.
Beautiful nature. Beautiful camera movements.
Maybe it was love and it was beautiful too. And I did not see only because I have not yet learned to see individuality in the uniformity of Oriental faces and only by the middle of the film do I have difficulty determining who is who. Maybe.
For the sake of the picture, the movie is worth watching. A lover of detectives, I think, will not regret it either. But will romantics please their appetite here? Doubtful.
More. A pretty solid chunk of time we are given to read messages on phones in Korean and Chinese. And obviously that's pretty important for the story. But there were no Russian subtitles. Maybe I should've been digging into the settings. But I was lazy. Why? I don't like detectives enough to bother with that. . .
The film “Decision to Leave” was shortlisted for the 95th Oscar ceremony in the category “Best Foreign Language Film”. The script for the first half of the film could easily have been used for a 1990s Bruce Willis thriller, with minor changes. It tells the story of a good cop who enters into a romantic relationship with one of his suspects, leading to a typical "mistake" - the officer stops using logic. In the end, the film takes a turn, but it may not be sharp enough to satisfy Park Chan Wook fans. Ultimately, the film can be considered a competently shot thriller, although it does not reach the best works of Park. The fact that a well-made thriller from this director is perceived as a disappointment speaks to the high standards set by his previous films.
Hae Joon (Pak Hae Il) is a Busan detective who has a strained relationship with his wife because he only spends time with her on weekends. They are discussing how to make their marriage stronger, which is a wake-up call. It is at this point that He Joon meets So Re (Tang Wei), a Chinese woman, the wife of a climber who, as it turned out, fell from the top of a cliff. But the question is, was the fall accidental? Or not...
He Joon's partner immediately begins to suspect Seo Ra, but Hae Joon himself comes to her defense, believing that the fall was an accident or perhaps a suicide. He is captured by the mysterious and elusive nature of So Ra, and the detective begins to follow her, becoming increasingly obsessed with the girl. As he gets more involved and crosses professional boundaries, Hae Joon begins to make mistakes. Director Park deftly uses visual elements such as morning fog at Yipo and He Joon's use of eye drops to clarify vision as a metaphor for Hae Joon's inability to see things clearly.
As the film progresses, there is a twist that cannot be discussed without issuing spoilers. However, it is interestingly connected with the first half of the picture. A new mystery emerges that forces Hae Joon to reconsider his actions and priorities. The film incorporates elements of noir and old-fashioned romance, as well as unexpectedly playing with the dynamics between the characters. This leads to a satisfactory impression of the thriller, even if it does not have the sharpness and tension that characterizes Park's work.
While this film may not be as grim as the director's previous work, it still explores the extreme and often brutal measures people take for emotional reasons. The film is structured in such a way that the protagonist, He Joon, appears as a rational person, but as the picture progresses, his routine and stability are disrupted, leading to reflection on what can happen when someone steps out of their comfort zone. In addition, the film touches on the subject of communication and the difficulty of understanding each other, which is highlighted by the use of an interpreter app for So Ra, who speaks Korean but hails from China. It can be argued that the film could explore this theme more deeply and the playful spirit of the characters caught in a dangerous situation and unable to truly understand each other, like the metaphor of "Mist", which is the title of So Re's favorite song.
The script of the film is well thought out and able to maintain strong dynamics throughout the narrative. It is incorrect to say that it is structurally weaker than other works of Park Chan Wook. However, the plot develops in a recurring spiral: similar conflicts arise between the main characters, and the consequences of their actions become more serious. The tension between the characters is so intense that it is almost insurmountable, and even brief moments of respite, such as the scene in which Park Hae-il catches turtles, are a pleasant respite from the tense and unsettling atmosphere. While these moments can disrupt the overall tone of the narrative, they are enjoyable and do not distract from the overall viewing experience. Overall, The Decision to Leave is a well-designed and intense picture that keeps the viewer on edge thanks to its complex characters and their conflicts.
Playing actors tends to be one of the strongest elements of Park Chang Wook's films, and this is especially evident in Deciding to Leave. The dynamic between Park Hae Il and Tang Wei plays an important role, and their interaction is undeniable. Although the recognition of the work depends not only on the play, but especially in the scenes of the investigation, the actors portray their characters and their relationships in a way that is critical to the success of the film. Unlike Oldboy or Thirst, which focuses on the story of one strong man, Decision to Leave points to the complexity of the relationship, making acting even more important to the overall impact of the film.
It is not known who was responsible for the casting, but the work done is wonderful. While some actors may have been chosen by type, they fit so seamlessly into their roles that it feels like looking at real people rather than the actors playing the role. Each character is depicted in its own way, for example, Yoo Seung Mok plays more exaggeratedly, and Lee Jong Hyun is more restrained, but the variety of acting styles does not negate the overall coherence of the ensemble. The actors are so well accustomed to their roles that you forget about the conventions of the film and completely immerse yourself in the story.
Undoubtedly, the most striking characters of the picture are Park Hae Il and Tan Wei. While director Park Chang Wook tends to gravitate toward characters that are slightly hyperbolized, Park He Il and Tan Wei are more reserved. They both fit the stereotype of the hardworking detective and the dangerous femme fatal. However, Park Hae Il and Tan Wei play in such a way that their characters mutually engage each other. Their interaction reveals the fullness and complexity of their characters, making the characters more interesting than they might seem. This is not to say that their performance in scenes without each other is weak, it is just that their characters shine brightest when they are together. Their dynamic and painful love story is central to the film.
The true beauty of Decision to Leave lies in how the picture immerses the viewer in the story. Its power is not conveyed in the description of the script, the cinematography or the editing, but is truly felt when watching the film. This is how cinema should be – attractive for the viewer and creating a feeling of immersion. This film is a testament to the cinematic skill of Park Chan Wook, which organically combines traditional elements of noir films and Korean cinema. Emotional saturation and gloomy aesthetics capture the audience and hold them in their hands, like the best noir works of the past, but with their own unique style.
In conclusion, Park Chang Wook’s “Decision to Leave” is a thriller that begins with a familiar story about a police officer trying to save the wrong suspect, but ultimately turns into a more fascinating and well-thought-out story involving topics of communication and emotional irrationality.
A deep and meaningful film for people of subtle mental organization. If you like it, I recommend watching a second time to catch all the moments of the script, which during the film reveal the characters and lead to an understanding of the endings of this and even the title of this film.
They are both sea-like and both proud, strong and strong-willed. He-Joon is a fearless detective, and So-Re is the granddaughter of a fearless Chinese general who can overcome her fear of heights and wipe the blood off the pool floor because she knows her lover doesn’t like the smell of blood. The actions of the heroes speak for themselves and probably only strong people can love this way. To go to murder for love and die... realizing that they cannot live without a loved one, to retreat from duty. . .
In the first part of the film, when trying to catch the killer with his own eyes, he sees how he commits suicide for the sake of his beloved woman, and in the second part, his beloved commits suicide for him. . .
The film is simply filled with symbolism, such as a crow's feather, which the main character first keeps in the first part, and in the second one casually reclines when talking to another police officer. S-Rae burys a dead bird in his yard, and then digs his own grave with the same bucket. . .
In the Wikipedia about Park Chan Wook, the director of the film, it is written that he was greatly influenced by such people as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Zola, Stendhal. Which says a lot. . .
They say that according to the rules of Russian literature, someone must suffer in a work. Author, reader or heroes. I mean, they lured me to see a movie. South Korean. In general, it seems that the writers and directors of the film Decision to Leave were guided by this principle of suffering.
They promise us romance and detective. What can I say? There is an investigation, and even two. A Chinese immigrant lady famously killed two husbands. You're so dead you won't dig in and everyone believes in an accident. Our detective doesn't believe it. But she won't be jailed anyway, even though he'll figure out how she did it. The hero of the film is a typical ideal Korean workaholic, has achieved success as a detective, everyone knows and respects him. An interesting system: married 16 years, works in the same city, his wife in the next, and he comes to her on Sunday to eat and have sex. And he has insomnia during the working week - from loneliness, overwork and because you need to find a reason to make him suffer, but not to scare the viewer away with a terrible disease. Or maybe for workaholics this is just a familiar symptom, causes sympathy and suffering of local viewers?
And suffering. Man suffers. She seems to be a criminal, but as a woman she is very good, and he likes it, but she is a criminal. And a real Korean has a thing to work only correctly and you can not sleep with a criminal, especially a married man. But I do. At the same time, both dead husbands are still vile personalities, one wife beat and took bribes, the second organized a local MMM. The lady suffers: the investigator seems to be a good man, but too correct. He will not get into bed with a criminal, but it is desirable and desirable that he show any interest in her besides the worker.
And it's okay, but 90 percent of the movie -- how we're suffering, look at how we're suffering on the right, look at how we're suffering on the left, we're suffering slowly, slow and savory. Very beautifully shot, thanks to the cameramen and editors. Very beautiful views of Korea. Look at the mountains, look at the sea, look at the city. The main question for the director: what did you want to say? Well, showed us a good audiovisual product, well, we appreciated the advertising poster of Korean landscapes. Why?
However, the answer should be sought in the fact that the film was shot specifically for the 75th Cannes Film Festival and received a prize there, as well as high praise from critics. In short, reporting to the producers is done. As in Russia: the main thing is to receive prizes and report, and then the grass does not grow and the viewer is no longer needed. For the second time, I watch the winner of the modern international film festival shot “for the prize”, not for the audience. In general, it seems to be necessary to take as a rule: I saw that the film participant of the “Oscar” there or the European film festival – do not waste time at once, do not look.
Throw your feelings into the sea so that no one will find them.
To be honest, I am not a fan of Korean cinema. Apparently, the fashion for Korean dramas passed me by, but somehow, the director, whom I knew as a lover of skillful fights and bloody scenes, managed to impress me with the sincerity and tenderness of a beautiful love story. And it is not even in the plot, but in the visual and auditory presentation, proximity to my favorite directors of witty comedies and head-to-head thrillers.
The plot revolves around the death of a man whose body was found at the foot of a rock. All would be fine if the deceased was not an experienced climber and if his belongings were not left on top. Premeditated murder? For the investigation of this case is taken detective Hezhong, suffering from insomnia, because of which he is forced to constantly be in the police saddle. To help the investigation comes the wife of the late Son Sore. But the further the tangle of investigation unravels, the closer their relationship becomes. The longer Hezhong follows her, the more he realizes that he is in love, while losing his vigilance and sober mind to investigate the case. Will he be able to get out of this tangle of feelings and unravel the case or will he finally block the investigation?
The visual language then pays tribute to the forgotten “Destination Point”, then Wes Anderson, with his favorite contrasts in the color circle, then originates from the leitmotif from the “Life of Adele”. Warm and juicy palette of colors, which is rarely found in thrillers, is in conflict with the plot, which makes the film more attractive, a kind of elegant, to the mind-blowing, “cruelty”. As for me, the reception is brilliant, although it has been known for decades. If we talk about the movement of the camera, then she decided to show wherever possible, these angles are sometimes so unusual that you pause the film and look at it. On the one hand, they plunge the viewer into a state of sleep paralysis, on the other hand, so disorganize the space that the viewer himself lies in the cradle of these dreams. But the musical edging at this time does not sleep, with dynamic slowness unwinding the tangle of relationships that should not have been engaged.
It is impossible not to mention the meticulous attention of the director to detail. Even a simple meal, which flashes in the film often helps to understand the motives of the main characters and changes in their relationships. Eating together replaces sex scenes, a routine walk, starting even in the rain, in this picture replaces the loudest declaration of love. "I'm mad with love, now I've ruined the investigation." The interior, landscapes, clothes with 12 pockets speak more than the mouth. But what is more telling is the look that Park Hae-il and Tan Wei have been able to keep the viewer nervously interested throughout the timeline.
Along with the tide in the last scenes, our sharp attention is dulled. Prepare for Park Chan-ook in Decision to Leave to fool you into a mean tear and make you look for meaning where it doesn’t seem to exist at first. He will be able to chain your eyes with iron handcuffs, touch the most beautiful landscapes and, of course, tickle the nervous system with hangings. Love sometimes makes a person blind, sometimes to see, you need to dig up the sand and find at its depths what you intended to throw far into the sea. “And this phone is utopian, throw it into the sea so that no one will find it.” Whoever is to be at the sea will come there.
9 out of 10
Going to the movies for “Decision to Leave” last September was inspired by a video recorded by Park Chan Wook himself. In it, he invites Russian viewers to his film, simultaneously confessing his love to Andrei Tarkovsky. The director honestly expressed that the rental of his film in Russia is very important for him, and I really believed him.
According to the director, his latest work differs from previous romantic mood and the absence of shocking (unpleasant) scenes. “The decision to leave” is an easy detective thriller with elements of psychological drama, exploring the inner problems of a middle-aged man.
The main character (played by Park Hae-il) is a married detective suffering from insomnia (a classic archetype). He is experiencing a crisis in relations with his wife, which clearly affects the work. During the investigation of a mysterious crime, he gets closer to the wife of the deceased. Then there are events that cannot be predicted.
The widow of the deceased (played by actress Tan Wei) can be described as femme fatale (in modern fashion - manic dream girl). She turns the world of the detective, remaining a mystery to him. This understatement in their interaction fascinates and in a good way forces you to immerse yourself in history with your head. Cinema is reminiscent of this ' Love Mood' Wonga Karvai (although I do not like this movie, but I have no right to deny its masterpiece). The director managed to create a curious ' love' neo-noir, exactly falling into the boundaries of his time.
It is also worth noting the visual side of the film. 'The decision to leave' filled with editing and camera delights, coupled with a strong plot, imbued with symbolism, it creates a gentle harmony of form with content. It is also surprising that the picture is not devoid of caricature, humor plays the role of “tonic” here – it dilutes the serious tone of the narrative.
In fact, this movie can even be called a comedy, but as we know, there is a very fine line between comedy and tragedy. The director masterfully combines humor with seriousness, while not turning his work into an eclectic tastelessness. I am sure that this movie will not be forgotten and will definitely remain noticeable in the filmography of Park Chan Wook.
The title of this neonoir is multiplied in the same way as the storylines that take viewers away from the main content and confuse the viewer ' consequence ' (which, along with a couple of main characters ' the detective is a fatal woman ' is a characteristic of classic noir cinema). Many heroes have their own decision to leave - mainly from life; but I think that the most important thing here is the decision to stay - not to succumb to the love mood & #39; and leave after feelings, and continue the routine of insomnia and work failures.
It's a very chaste film in which a kiss under the snow seems more revealing than a sex scene. In which adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony sounds quite unexpectedly. And in which translation difficulties do not distort the language of the senses.
It is not by chance that the film received the prize of the Venice Festival for directing, since the film is staged with such a love for cinematography that it is even difficult to understand who was more excited about the process, the operator himself or the director. Phak Chan Wook has already been deservedly accepted for his previous masterpieces, but his operator, apparently, does not, and on this occasion complexes, why he used so many visual moves in the film that personally to me, as a person who knows how to understand the picture, even seemed a clear overkill. To show a series of shifts in meaning in the picture, at some point they even experiment with focus very strongly (the segment of eating sushi from a cool restaurant) to show the unnaturalness of the communication process, and only this subtlety makes my aesthetic eye almost cry with happiness.
Interesting and the script itself, which does not correspond to a simple detective or thriller. Rather, the genre of the film is centered around the concept of drama, and very ambiguous. It reflects well the modern life, complexes and suffering of people who live, in general, in a comfortable and happy world, but at the same time they still lack something, so they think up adventures on the fifth point.
Traditionally, for such complex films, I can not even advise them to watch, but I put such masterpieces a bold top ten, because they should definitely be included in the list for watching moviephiles who love good films.
The decision to leave or Park Chang-wook’s decision to remain a legend in the history of cinema
Probably everyone has ever heard about the movie “Oldboy”, which made a lot of noise in the zero, and to this day remains a very controversial picture. The director of Oldboy, the legendary South Korean director Park Chan-wook, is indeed a genius: his hand owns such pearls as “Sympathy for Mr. Revenge”, “Sympathy for Madame Revenge”, “The Handmaid”.
At the Cannes Festival of the season’22, Park Chan-uk receives a palm tree for best director for the new film “Decision to Leave”, and at this time I realize that how long I would not have to wait for the rental, it will be worth it.
No mistake.
"The decision to leave" is a detective, beautiful and measured as a piano game, well, or low tide on big water in the late evening. The protagonist Jang Hae-jun investigates the mysterious and tragic death of a man who fell off a cliff, and in his spare time he lives a routine life with his wife. During the investigation, Hae-Joon meets Son So-re, the widow of a deceased amateur climber. This is where chemistry begins.
A lion that falls in love with a sheep, or vice versa, is certainly impossible to make out. Why I personally admire Chang Wook’s cinema is because every step the hero makes determines his fate, it is a real game of chess. And the most interesting thing is that Chang-Wook will even show us “if only,” and we will see how much the meeting of two people can affect the course of time and shake space.
In interesting facts about the director, we learn that Park Chan-uk graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, which is not surprising: the study of the motives of revenge, making fateful decisions and their consequences acquire a special meaning in the director’s film.
Chang-wuk’s attitude toward love in Decision to Leave definitely follows from its potential impossibility: it manifests itself in the investigator-suspect pair. The detective's depression mixes with the woman's obsession, and it's even more beautiful than one might imagine.
But how far can one go to find the truth, even if the feeling is stronger than the truth? And will there be enough strength to make a fateful decision in the end, especially the decision to leave?
10 out of 10
For some time, I was left not only without a computer, but without a phone. These days, incommunicado with the world, I accidentally got to the movies and watched “The Decision to Leave.” What a joy! If I had access to Movie Search, I would definitely give up even the shadow of an idea, because I'm too primitive for films of this kind. To put it bluntly.
"The decision to leave" is a lifetime, fun and deeply tragic, full of black laughter and pure tears. The detective's shell here is like a masking wrapper, a kind of wrapper for a natural diamond. The story begins with a simple investigation into the death of a mountaineer. He fell off the mountain and left his young wife alone. Meeting her becomes the starting point of the real life of a talented investigator Jang Hae-joon, obsessed with justice and clarity.
The most important thing for me is true love. This is rare in modern cinema. There is no delight, storm of passions, sweet molasses. Only a rapid fall to the bottom of the bottomless abyss. Infinite and absorbing all the remaining years of life.
P.S. What an amazing actress Tan Wei! Her character, too.
I think few would argue with the fact that Park Chan Wook can be safely called one of the main and most respected directors in the history of Korean cinema. It was his so-called "Trilogy of Revenge" and in particular "Oldboy" that drew public attention to Korean cinema and popularized it around the world. Not to mention other works of the director, who consistently become winners of prestigious film awards. In the end, it is not surprising that the name of the director is a guarantee of quality and “Decision to leave” only confirms this once again.
The plot of this film revolves around police detective Chang Hae Joon, who is tasked with investigating the death of a man who fell from a cliff. The widow of the late Son Seo Ra immediately begins to cooperate with the investigation, but the further the investigation progresses, the more the detective suspects and falls in love with her.
Definitely one of the main advantages of this tape is a stunning scenario that equally successfully copes with two tasks on the screen. On the one hand, telling a really interesting detective story with an interesting investigation. On the other hand, turning the genre inside out and presenting it in a fresh and perhaps even melodramatic form.
The story begins at first glance banal and seemingly puts at the heart of the plot one of the most hackneyed and worn for the genre topics in the face of the obsession of the observer with the object of his observations. Happily evoking analogies with "Basic Instinct" and a number of other paintings. The same can be noted about the familiar elements of the neo-noir genre. Starting with the image of a femme fatale, who will surely seduce the hero and will deceive him to the last frames and ending with a hard-working detective who involuntarily becomes a naive victim of deception. However, as the plot develops, all this turns out to be only a deception and a false move, behind which Chang Wook explores the psychology of a man with a midlife crisis and the topic of love. But again, love is not in the same form as usual in the framework of other paintings.
Park Chang Wook definitely made one of the best works in his already impressive filmography, which in turn is very different from the usual work of the director. Having completely renounced any violence or explicit scenes, Chang Wook made a surprisingly warm, melancholy and perhaps even intimate film. What looks good is strange in the context of the genre of detective thriller. Willfully fueling it with a viscous and unhurried manner of narration, as well as a picturesque and artistic production. It is as if the screen is not just a film, but a real work of art.
Definitely one of the main advantages of this tape can be noted and an excellent acting duet Park He Il and Tan Wei. After a break in creativity, He Il again began to star in leading roles and perhaps this role can be called one of the most interesting in the work of the artist. He got a rather complex and deep image, which he masterfully embodied at the level of natural emotions and behavior. Tan Wei managed to breathe a breath of fresh air into the seemingly familiar image of the “femme fatale” and again gain a foothold in the position of one of the most talented and unfortunately undeservedly underestimated actresses of Chinese cinema. Having created a very ambiguous and contradictory image that keeps “face behind the mask” on the final credits.
9 out of 10
The decision to leave is definitely one of the best and atypical films in the work of director Park Chang Wook. Having completely renounced any violence or explicit scenes, Chang Wook made a surprisingly warm, melancholy and perhaps even intimate film. What looks good is strange in the context of the genre of detective thriller. Willfully fixing all this with a picturesque production, excellent acting work and an extremely unusual love story against the background of a detective investigation of several murders at once.
I didn't like it. For me, this movie is a little too kitsch. Koreans generally sin this, and here is the film from the author 'Oldboy'. However, the review will be neutral: not a masterpiece, but worth a look. Many episodes will be remembered for a long time. And remember the main character, I guarantee.
There is an interesting camera work, very organically included in the video series communication in messengers (the most important element of modern life, right?), thoughts and fantasies of the characters. There are very good actors, I’m talking about the main couple. Played perfectly, sparks fly, shades of emotions in the eyes read. But yes, there is a lot on the verge of kitsch.
There's a lot of black humor in the movie. With a specifically Korean flavor. And the music sometimes reflects – it would seem, a romantic thriller, and the soundtrack – like a comedy watching. Because it's a comedy. Places.
And sometimes a thriller, of course. Just some weird thriller. The fact is that the plot does not keep in tension at all. There is practically no suspense, despite the cheerful montage and kitsch violence. Attention's on the detail. It is interesting to follow how the relationships of the characters unfold, although they are not that standard - archetypal.
A tenacious investigator living at work and at work. Fatal woman, stranger, another: an illegal immigrant from China, a child of a different culture. And the culture of the original, maternal (relative to Korean). Servant of the law and possible criminal. Conflict of duty and feeling. It is a matter of honor not to miss a single detail, to solve any case. The truth of the heart is to love. The collision is not new. New - in the shades of feelings, phrases, relationships. It's really well filmed, grooves.
And by the way, no 18+. We don't even know if the heroes were lovers. It doesn't matter. Passion works like the law of gravitation, permeates everything. But you really remember moments like where he puts cream on her coarse, winded hands. Or where he orders lunch for himself and the suspect. Not from the nearest diner, as usual, but from a luxury sushi restaurant. Or where she teaches him to sleep again - he's lost his skills, suffers from insomnia. Breathe in the same rhythm, breathe in sync. This is all from reality, not from pretentious thrillers, but from our lives. That's how they like it.
That's erotic. Hand cream, breath-anti-stress and luxury sushi. And, of course, the difficulty of translation. The heroine speaks Korean well, but not perfectly. Some things she communicates through an interpreter - electronic, of course. And that's part of their love, too. Bridge over the abyss.
She learns Korean from drama, and therefore speaks with amusing archaisms. Woman is timeless.'Did you come to me from the Tang era?' Standard joke, standard question of a man who fell under the charm of a woman. You don't exist, you're not real, you're not from here. . .
What will happen when the heart calms down?
The case will be stitched in Daddy and filed in the archives. And the heart will never calm down.
It happens twice. Once as a tragedy, another as a farce. The second series of this Marlesonian ballet is coarser, darker, farcical first. There, as it were, the flair of moral and emotional ambiguity disappears - the feelings and motives of the characters become clear as a day of God. Like deep-sea fish pulled ashore. I don’t think that makes it easier for the heroes, on the contrary.
There is an American crime story, 'The postman always calls twice'. Here the plot is completely different, but there is a general idea: the turn is not there - and then the circumstances themselves develop so as to drown for sure. Man drowns himself successfully. Makes one choice after another, the funnel inferno twists - and now everything flies to tartarara, until finally. ..
As I watched it, I thought the perfect soundtrack to 'Decision to Leave' would be Zemfira'Forgive Me, My Love'. Someone here at Kinopoisk also came up with this idea, I saw this quote in another review. But I repeat:
The sea will embrace, bury in the sand,
Fishing lines will drop,
Our souls will be caught in the net.
Forgive me, my love.
It's too late to think about something.
You, I can smell, need air.
Forgive me, my love.
The jeans of the water are dialed and stuck,
I think we're in deep trouble.
I think the sun has gone out... (c)
... directing, the work of the operator, the combination of hidden and explicit computer graphics here are good ... much better than the plot component.
You can just remove a person walking through a conventional office space, or you can remove him from such a perspective from the outside of the office that the reflection of his windows will be visible and the city landscape with his houses. You can just remove the street, or you can remove it from the car, turning the camera inside the cabin so that initially it is not even clear that from the very beginning of the shooting as from the inside of the vehicle. The play of reflections, combinations of frames, perspective, capture not only two in the frame, but also something in their background that also attracts and captivates - it's interesting. This is very interesting, usually says immediately that a person is busy shooting something not one day, not one month, but years. He's already bored with the usual shots. He is like an artist who has already painted a thousand landscapes of nature and still lifes, and now has become a kind of Picasso, well, or someone with a more sane picture of life, but talented and at least a little famous already.
The pictures in the picture are really entertaining. It is a pity that the plot, its main points are not so catchy. Maybe we've had enough of all these things and seen a lot of similar stories on TV, on the big screen, on the Internet, all kinds of things.
There was something going on right now. Reflection scene. The focus is not on those sitting in front, as it were, but on the mirror, but again something is wrong ... because one person is clearly visible in the reflection and another is not ... then you look back, realizing that in the foreground the same chess: one person is in focus and the other is blurred - everything is in chess order. Why? To hook me? To develop strabismus?! But funny. You can just remove a person who looks at the fish on the counter, or you can shoot a person through the eyes of a fish on the counter.
Cinema really tries to show something familiar in an unusual way. Trying to find the key to my surprise.
Otherwise, it looks like a secretive game of cat and mouse, but who is it? My pussy, I miss you, I don't get cheese from you... your mouse.
For some reason, there are no sabs, especially not enough translation of inscriptions, texts, SMS, etc. - they simply do not exist. And Korean, sometimes even Chinese, I don't -- although you can take a picture and make it recognize and translate some Google translator-recognition, even though they recognize without a photo in the application -- hmmmmmmmmm -- there's always a bingo output.
'All will take the fog and the waves. Except what's inside my heart.
'Decision to Leave' - melancholy noir, balancing between subtle melodrama and sophisticated detective. And definitely the most mature film of Park Chan-wook.
After 'Parasites' Korean cinema, expected to take a two-year break, again flies into the cinematopes with another masterpiece. And this time in a very atypical genre. For the standard Western viewer of cinema, South Korea lives in 3.5 hypostases:
1) Bong Joon-ho, author 'Parasites' and 'Memories of Murder' The most non-Korean Korean, who loves to shoot on the common themes of social inequality. Such Korea for film tourists
(2) Kim Ki-duk. Strictly author's director, fundamentally not worked in mass cinema, but very beloved in Russia
(3) Park Chan-wook. From 'Oldboy' to 'The Handmaid', from 'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance' to 'Through snow'. He taught me about real Asia. With blood, script decisions incomprehensible to most of the globe and because of this frank game.
3.5) Of course, drama. In the world of which the entrance ticket is slightly more expensive than in the universe of Turkish TV series, but still for the purse of almost anyone who knows how to distinguish Asians by appearance.
There. Number 3, Park Chan-wook has made a new film. You don't recognize him. The Korean is again studying the phenomenon of making a decision. Now it's a decision to leave. Of course, from life. But suddenly and with great love.
The synopsis of the film is very noir. A brutal policeman catches criminals from Busan to Daegu. Teach young employees in the style of Fincher’s Morgan Freeman from the film 'Seven' and meets with his wife only on weekends. Life with her is right, but devoid of colors. Sexual contact once a week, healthy eating and rallies for a peaceful atom, the production of which works a very correct wife.
But here comes the femme fatale. A Chinese migrant whose husband was found dead. And the more a cop gets caught up in a case, the more he sinks into a vicious connection with a potential suspect. Chastity of the chains deprives eroticism. The peak of debauchery is a casual kiss among the scattered ashes of the parent. A unique world where the touch of the desired lips is more vicious than mechanical friction of the clitoris.
Falling in love with a fatal beauty, the hero betrays and loses everything. His wife doesn't hide his betrayal, but he doesn't care. The former suspect becomes a criminal, but he doesn't care. Time loses count, but he doesn't care. He drowned. In Confucius’ reckless quotes in a Chinese, lulling voice before bed and the strange magic of the evening half-tones of a small kitchen, which the policeman is still forced to watch. The masking becomes imperceptibly mania, and the investigation becomes an excuse for meetings.
Park Chang-Wook takes his 'Love Mood' He steals from Wong Kar-Wai not so much the palpability of feeling in an Asian metropolis as the elusive sense that only the final emotion is valuable. The love will inevitably end, the femme fatale will come and go, leaving a painful memory of the happiest moment in the history of this dark and rainy city. Park Chang-Wook shoots his 'Dizziness'. Even the plot does not look Hitchcockian, the film language itself is unique. Sophisticated editing, thoughtful spans of the camera capture one of the strongest directorial works of this year.
Korean playfully arranges homage to the main creators of Asian culture. The final waves descend from the engravings of Katsushiki Hokusai, and the caricature footage of the chase is a direct reference to the Korean Durer - Kim Jong-gi.
'The decision to leave' will never take its place 'Oldboy' but it is the new film that is close to magnum opus. Where the story of Oh De-Su shocked and provoked, the rhythm of the new film responds to questions that are not correctly answered.
As a result, in the new film, Park Chang-wook, although consciously rejects cruelty, does not become less ruthless. Bloody massacres and cheerful beatings with a hammer - not the worst thing that can happen in life. It's worse to put yourself in a trap that won't open its mouth again. This is what happened to the characters 'Decisions to leave'. Both remained prisoners. He is held hostage by the male psyche, and she is his eternal hanging-up.
A brief synopsis of this Korean film can be expressed by the song Zemfira "Forgive me, my love."
So,
The sea will fall asleep, buried in the sands.
Fishing lines will drop,
Our souls will be caught in the net.
Forgive me, my love...
I can't hear the clock or the seagull.
Docilely turn the heart off. . .
Let’s take a look at this point.
1. The sea in "Decision to Leave" is a separate character (see the movie - you'll see what I mean).
2. The movie is about captured souls who will never get out of the trap of fate. And if they get out, then you need to decide first, and then you will have to do what a desperate animal trapped in a trap does - bites off its paw. Or something like that in human terms. Hence the name of the film. And, perhaps, in the title of the film lies the idea that it is better to leave sooner than later, leaving bright memories of yourself, and not torment, bitterness and annoyance.
3. You can live not only in obedience to some external forces and circumstances, but also in obedience to the inner - when people prefer to turn off the heart and thereby gain freedom from worries, as does the wife of GG and at first GG.
For me, Park Chan Wook is a cult director. I watched a lot of his films - "Oldboy", "Sympathy for the Lady of Vengeance", "Sympathy for the Lord of Vengeance", & #39; Thirst & #39; "Through the Snow" and "The Handmaid". All these films can be described in one word – passionary. And "Decision to Leave" does not stand alone in the filmography of Chang Wook - not without reason for this work he received the prize "Best Director" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, in "Decision to Leave" we still will not see as much overburdened blood-erotic action as in his previous works. In this regard, “The decision to leave” is rather the younger brother of other works of the director. Or maybe the latest film novel reveals Park Chan Wook as the director of the changed - grown up, wised and matured? Otherwise, why is the theme that true love requires not sex on a chandelier, but a deep, strong emotional connection?
The main role in “Decision to leave” starred Park Hae-il, familiar to me from another equally mysterious Korean film “Memories of a Murder”.
As in "Memories of a Murder", in "Decision to Leave" a lot of innuendo, the film is full of them. Facts and events are layered on top of each other like an endless cascade, and the pace of the story becomes truly frantic. In addition, it is in this creation that Park Chan Wook uses a disturbing technique: when the characters move from location to location, and at first you do not quite understand whether they are moving in fact or in your imagination, or your imagination has already begun to come up with something that is not in the film. In his review of The Solution, film critic Timur Aliyev writes: “Busan is not Moscow, there is no fuss and chaos here...” Maybe there is no chaos in Busan, but in the film narrative, a certain chaos is artificially created by the director - not because the film is bad and indistinct, but to confuse the viewer. Trying to logically understand the meaning of what is happening, you eventually realize that you just need to let go of the reins and give yourself to the spectacle. Allow yourself to just look, putting what you see in the treasury of visual impressions. And you can digest and comprehend later. However, Park Chan Wook calls his idols Tarkovsky and Dostoevsky. To call their creations simple language does not turn. From here we draw conclusions.
As a true Korean film, "Decision to Leave" is full of the favorite features of national cinema - when cruelty is interspersed with specific humor, when violence becomes something as common as butchering fish with throwing fish guts and splashing cold fish blood. The film goes to the condo methods of work of the Korean police, and the stratification of society with musty anthill slums on the one hand and luxurious villas with sea views on the other.
No wonder so much space in the film is given to natural severity - mountains, sea, rain, snow. For all the appearance and sweetness of Korean culture, in which prone to metrosexual men are not inferior to women (hello to a Korean detective wearing sanitary lipstick and hand cream in his pocket), the realities of the Gangnam style society are far from paradise. This is a very hierarchical, competitive society, cultivating workaholism, associated with overwhelming stress. In fact, for almost 2.5 hours of film, we don’t see a single happy or even relaxed person. This means that a society that is not quite healthy, clutched in the clutches of dogmas and conventions, is not capable of producing mentally healthy people. Living in Australia, I come across an increasing number of Korean expats. All people have one thing in common: the fish seeks where it is deeper, and the man where it is better.
Throughout 'Decisions to Leave' Park Chang Wook uses tricks from the director’s piggy bank, referring us to her “The Handmaid”, where the Korean actress learned Japanese to play a Japanese woman (in “The Solution”, the Chinese actress learns Korean to play a Chinese woman who emigrated to Korea). Then to 'Memories of murder' when in the center of the plot revolves catchy melody of an old song, echoing the present day.
The master's final film about possession is when the victim becomes obsessed with the object as a result of a subtle, multi-step play. The only problem is that towards the end you no longer understand who the victim is, who is about. If Lynch were Korean, he would have made films like that. The Decision to Leave reminds me of the first three seasons of Killing Eve (until the show slid into outright absurdity). No, reminds not that in the main role in “Killing Eve” starred Korean actress. A detective's obsession with his suspect and vice versa. As a result of this obsessiveness, there is some psychopathization of the victim’s personality, when it is filled only with the object and feels empty and depressed in the absence of this object.
'Where are you, So Re?' - GG frantically asks. But there's no answer. Find the answer in the title of the film.
The fact that the entry of gadgets of all types and suits into everyday life, radically able to change the narrative in the cinema, Park Chan-uk guessed one of the first. Two decades ago, his trilogy of revenge amazed the many voices of storytellers. The decision to leave is the essence of his finding. To such a degree of confusion that the fate of the heroine of the film Son So Ryo is like the fate of her iPhone.
In reality, iPhones, tablets and other gadgets in the world is becoming more and more. And Park Chan-ook built his movie as content recorded on many gadgets and played simultaneously. Here, in one frame, the past and the future collide. Characters adjust their own gestures and words. They are facing each other in the same plane and facing the camera at the same time. Perpetuate photos and dialogues in order to destroy them. The problem is that nothing can be destroyed. Everything comes to the surface. Including literally.
One coronal reception of the director for those who have seen at least one of his previous films no longer works. Building a plot on the principle of loading a computer, when parts of the screen light up in a chaotic sequence, by the middle of Oldboy plunged the viewer into a state of stupidity, who missed something in the development of events, and now will never understand what is happening. But as the picture of events was filled, the viewer’s self-esteem returned, multiplied by the joy of the detective lover: this is what it turned out to be! The decision to leave has implemented the same method. The fact that the film pretends to be a detective is not misleading. The question of whether a major immigration official himself jumped off a cliff or was helped is sluggishly discussed throughout the film, but the answer to it almost does not bother either the characters, the filmmakers or the audience. The problem of how to keep in the hall for more than two hours a person who can not link pictures in a single chain of events, Park Chan-uk brilliantly decided two decades ago. While the chain of main events is not obvious, the director shoots each specific episode as a mini-film with its own set, climax and denouement, saturating these films - episodes with shock rides. Eating a live octopus in Oldboy became a symbol of his creative handwriting. In "Decision to Leave" there are separate mini-movies about migration problems (the wife of the deceased Song So Ryo is a Chinese naturalized in Korea), about weekend marriages (investigator Yang Hye Joon and his wife see each other once a week), about the burden of guilt for the past, about old age, which is not joy, about the desire to voluntarily leave life (both in the case of a grandmother of old age, and in the case of a man in his prime), about the causes and consequences of insomnia, about domestic violence, about the difficulty of working in you. And about the different mentality of the inhabitants of Busan, Seoul and the seaside Opo - this is already a joy for Korean viewers. On the need for solar vitamin D and the destructive fog that envelopes Opo from morning to night. And also about soft-bodied turtles, the biomaterial of which is able to save men from the crisis of middle age.
As for the shock rides, Park Chan-ook resolutely steps on the throat with his own song. Cruelty and sex in Decision to Leave is kept to a minimum. But the side of the senses is displayed at maximum volume. What Happens Between the Investigator and the Wife of the Dead In love? Manipulating feelings? Erotic obsession? Gadgets for users have become about the same as the materials of the criminal case for investigators. Sound files record traces of feelings, observations, notes. Smartphones are trusted with the most intimate pictures, texts, voice sounds. But no matter how they pretend to be objective protocols, different people read them with their own vision of the world and fill them with different content. iPhones suffer the same fate. The same audio file is read by the investigator as introspection, Son So Ryo as a declaration of love, by her boyfriend as evidence. Sung Seo Ryo’s imperfect knowledge of Korean should be compensated by electronic translators. But they're also inaccurate in detail. “Lonely Korean” instead of “only Korean” is the very example when a small inaccuracy in meaning entails a cardinal shift in emotional coloration.
The layering of texts, meanings, visual images rushing from all angles from different devices makes the extremely recorded world as ghostly, inaccurate, unstable as possible. Everything is understandable and unknowable in the world of gadgets. After all, each gadget is its own point of view, its own world. In addition, the abundance of points of view is multiplied by the insomnia of the protagonist, which makes the world recorded and recorded by many cameras quite ghostly. Only the power of feeling is strong. It doesn't matter if it's love or hate. The point is, it's power. Material is ephemeral. Emotional is authentic.
The Decision to Leave is a novelty from Oldboy director Park Chan-ook, who won the Best Director prize at the last Cannes Festival.
Asians continue their victorious campaign in modern cinema and as usual do it mockingly atypical.
The plot of the film turned out to be flat: a detective with a lot of personal problems takes on a difficult case involving a fatal woman. For Chang-wuk, choosing such a plot after the Western model of sterile “The Handmaid” would be suicide.
However, a very subtle and competently built film space, coupled with a particularly dynamic for such an undynamic history of audio and video editing, which adds to the bland narrative notes of cold black humor, dress “Kolobka” in the cover of “Divine Comedy”.
Cognitive dissonance arises: how does a smoothie from the detective genre template with a set of minor illogicalities easily stand on a par with other representatives of oriental cinema, like a grizzly tearing what is mass, what is the elite industry of the 21st century into small pieces?
Apparently, the creators of the “far plain” managed to derive a universal formula that is undeniably rooted in their concept of the perception of life and death – the foundation of all Asian culture and an insurmountable barrier for the white man.
Attention, but not a masterpiece. In the Oldboy category, "Decision to Leave" will have to take the place of the periphery.
Despite the high quality, its semantic context is empty, and most of the “original” and “39” in the demonstration of violence seems unnecessarily tortured against the background of its over-exploitation by Asians in recent years.
“The moment you said you loved me, your love was over.”
Have you ever watched Korean romantic thrillers? I’ll tell you about one now, and it’s the best I’ve seen lately.
Let’s start with the fact that Pak Chan Wook (he once shot "Oldboy"), came up with the finale of Decisions to Leave 30 years ago. Not everything comes down to it, but the last shots are the real decoration of this work. It was a release, a deliverance, a farewell... I don’t know... just like Hae-Joon doesn’t know in the final scene. Beautiful, tragic, you may need to finish the director's comments, but in general it is understandable and most importantly, in Korean logical.
In general, Asians in the genres of thriller / detective tapes are quite cold-blooded, but in any case there are always elements of drama, and their manifestations are strong. Here, first of all, it is a story of forbidden love... it is not going, it is beautiful and sincere. But there is a mystery, there are secrets, and there are uniquely individual pieces that set this film apart from anything you’ve seen before.
"The decision to leave" is just not valuable for its detective component, here is another, the characters most of the film are engaged in the study of pain and loneliness. In a good melodrama, presumably American, everything would be standard, and we know the ending of this story, but this is Park Chang Wook, just will not be here, even considering that in the work of the director the main characters of this film are good people (compared to other films). The film runs for more than 2 hours and is formally divided into 2 parts, and when you think after the first 60 minutes that it seems that everything, then you do not know Koreans well, because after the hour, nothing even began there.
The colours, the shots, the looks, the gestures, all of this comes together in what I call a good movie, and it’s something that you have to see and feel. And then there is the simple aesthetic pleasure of watching, a very long time this was not the case.
The moment you said you loved me, your love ended.
9 out of 10
This murky film is kept afloat by two things - the cameraman and the lead actor. They're really good. The rigor of the narrative, unrelated sharp changes in the history of the characters, obscure motives of actions, some deliberate non-attachment to reality, this work is significantly cheaper. What could have been a masterpiece remained an ordinary craft. As if the script on the knee ruled, and time with the budget squeezed.
Inadequate, unromantic.
Like forbidden love. Like breaking the foundations. Like human feelings. The plot is outdated. Suited with a specific overdramatism. Behind all this involuntarily see the movie machinery, although I wanted a cute love story. The choice of the actress, I think, is suppressed solely by personal directorial sympathies. Why, then, claim that the character is 'young and beautiful' several times. When not and not. Write an interesting woman on your fortieth. Small stories of secondary characters, though interesting, start out of nowhere and end up with nothing, which is a pity. This seems to devalue the lives of all those people around who are not ' young and beautiful' Chinese in the vision of the director. No reason.
The review is not entirely objective. I'm a longtime fan of the director. I was lucky to see most of Park’s films on the big screen. And it's a special pleasure. One of the critics said that Villeneuve’s Dune is the last movie for cinemas. But, no. The beauty of Chang Wook Park films is revealed right there in the hall. It's a picture and a light and a sound. He learned to present this mystery of cinema to the audience in a special way. The new film is like an exquisite competition between content and form. Between what and how. Or even a demonstration of these two concepts. The complex deep meanings are very, very beautifully shown. Chang Wook Park looks like a genius. It can work even with impossible forms. Like time. It is different here: slow running, flying, confusing, distorted, measured, elusive, wasted. And I think that in this film, Park came close to solving two questions that are a rebuke of modern cinema. And that's phenomenal, too. First, he managed to depict at least part of the universe that we spend in “smart devices” – smartphones, watches, cameras, binoculars, voice recorders and others. And how this universe is experienced by us, how it affects us and sometimes changes us. Secondly, he subtly conveyed the complex intricacies that flow inside the main characters, inside each of us. The complex dance of the brain and heart, thoughts and feelings, images, perception, thinking, associations, intuition, instincts, from which such a sequence as we know and deny is born: love, passion, possession, destruction and death. The image of the mountain and the sea, as through in the narrative, creates together with Confucius the philosophical core of the picture, but how many other ambiguous ideas, themes, plots! Everyone will find their own. I would mention Kim Ki-duk, it seemed that some moments were like a tribute to his work. I remember Ingmar Bergman. The actors are great. A deep film that evokes deep and contradictory emotions, therefore requiring serious inner work from the viewer. Efforts are needed, at least, in order to “lay” all this inside yourself, to accept and live on with others. In general, you can already begin to argue how good this picture is. Is it enough to call it a masterpiece?
10 out of 10
The director of The Revenge Trilogy, about whom Tarantino himself spoke with piety, suddenly not only met my expectations for the film, but also exceeded them. I expected to see a protracted detective film full of suspense, with elements of aggressiveness and rough directness, as in the same Oldboy, and saw such a pure work of fiction that I did not notice how the film ended (it goes more than 2 hours), and I was at the point that is called catharsis (sorry God).
Whether Chan-uk was inspired by Karwai or Hitchcock is difficult to say, but the movie was surprisingly romantic.
This movie is so beautiful that I do not want to write any draught about the complexity of the plot, which is suddenly interrupted, replaced, leaves a field for imagination and questions (this is really so), but I want to dwell on how the characters are written, who so subtly conveyed the invisible connection between two people that at some moments I wanted to freeze and not move from such beauty.
The plot itself develops from the first minutes, as in the previous works of Chang-uk. No unnecessary tedious beginning, which directors often abuse to add intrigue and “threaten” the viewer. It's different here. The main character “floats” instantly and the viewer is not even given a chance to doubt this, everything is visible at once.
Here you need to pay tribute to the chosen image, which the director proposed for the main character, from which it is very difficult not to “swim”. Song So Ryo is not just a beautiful Chinese woman who makes funny mistakes in Korean words and laughs sweetly, which “drives” a prim detective (Yang Hye Joon), but a truly characteristic and intelligent girl who delicately feels where to take a step towards each other.
He is a modest detective who lives in Busan, away from a terribly tedious and “right” wife who lives in the province and on weekends annoys him with arguments that sex should be done for the sake of heart health, and grenades are useful for eating at menopause. He has trouble sleeping, can’t breathe his nose and wakes up 47 times a minute, making him tired, exhausted and unhappy. However, this changes when a crime appears in his life, the main suspect of which is Son So Re.
She works as a nurse who has just lost her husband, which does not upset her at all, jokes, is not ashamed of her feelings, smokes a lot and watches movies, openly flirts, comes to his house, and as if nothing had happened, begins to care, using a method for falling asleep, which, although not tactile, is intimate and close. After that, Zhong really manages to relax and fall asleep, transporting us to a beautiful dream in the rain.
The film very subtly conveys the feeling of connection between two people when they are close and apart, which is done almost flawlessly.
She smokes in the kitchen while he cooks, and he takes a cigarette from her hand, shakes off the ashes and gives it back as if they had been together for a long time. She “unceremoniously” digs into his pockets and uses his hygienic lipstick, and he lubricates her hands with cream, but there is so much naturalness and attraction that it is even surprising how cleanly and accurately the director was able to convey such simple and valuable moments of intimacy.
Everything about directing has already been said by critics and recognition in Cannes. This is really a well-deserved award. At some points I wanted to wind back to once again enjoy the views of the mountains, sea and rocks. It is a jewelry camera work for which you can go to the cinema twice.
Total. Watch and enjoy while you can.
9 out of 10
p.s. If you’ve watched an Asian love movie for the first time and enjoyed it, watch all of Wong Karwai’s movies, starting with '.
A wealthy mountaineer dies under dubious circumstances on a rock. Suspicion falls on his wife. Unhappy in marriage, the investigator involuntarily falls in love with the suspect ... will he not be the next victim?
Wait a minute, that's what - 'Basic Instinct'? No, it's not that easy for the Koreans. Laureate of Cannes for directing Park Chan-uk does everything to make this story more like 'Love Mood' Kar-vai - there are unusual angles, and the eternal inefficiency between the characters, and long glances ... and to finally confuse the viewer, the director includes not only the flashback machine, but also the subjective perception of the characters - even if they are far away, they represent themselves together.
The perception of the film is hampered by translation difficulties - the heroine is Chinese, and the hero is Korean. She knows Korean well, but not perfectly, so she clings to incomprehensible words, savors them, takes them with her. Subtitles alone do not feel this mess of meaning. So what we have to do is focus on the detective part, and there's a surprise — when the mystery is almost solved, instead of the climax, we get the central turning point — the film lasts almost three hours, so there's enough space for the film. For the viewer, it looks like a second series, where everything starts anew - in a new city, with a new mystery, with new heroes. Given this timeline, it is even surprising how the storylines of secondary heroes, such as an assistant investigator or a provincial policewoman, are lost in the fog. And the heroine herself makes a decision that is difficult to understand.
As a detective, the film is still too naive - a kind of deliberately rude clue that the hero receives at exactly the right time. But as a love story, the edges of which are lost in the fog and translated - ' The decision to leave' fascinating, attracts and throws with a long aftertaste of bitterness and the smell of the sea.
The Decision to Leave is one of Park Chang-ook’s best films and so far the best film of the year.
“The detective is investigating the death of a man who fell off a cliff. The widow of the deceased cooperates with the investigation, but the further the case progresses, the more the detective suspects her and the more he falls in love. "
Perhaps my assessment is caused by still not subdued emotions, because I just left the theater, but the feeling of greatness of the picture is so tangible that it is unlikely to subside soon.
Classic plot and plot and not a trivial approach to it. Korean formula. It would seem that you can shoot a new in the genre with a love line suspect - investigator? Park Chan-ook gives the answer. Unlike his other films, here he does not go into outright cruelty, here he is more mature. His heroes also suffer at the end from not perfect love, but this time the ideal was as close as possible.
Park Chang-uk deliberately deprives the film of sexuality and physicality in the frame in order to fully immerse itself in the thoughts and feelings of the characters. He did it. The chemistry between the main characters is such that I even wanted to feel this rough, then tender skin of So Ryo’s hand.
Technically, the film is perfect. The usual zoom of the camera or the subjective angle of the camera here plays with new colors. What is worth only one frame from the eye of a corpse with an ant crawling on it? Symmetrical shots with the main character’s car floating around the city, the texture of rain and fog, mountains and the sea. Any random frame can be on the screensaver of the desktop.
The movie is really heavy. Many details can easily be missed by blinking. There are a lot of inserts of flashbacks and flash forwards, which is not difficult to get confused. Even the director’s move with an “invisible witness” in the frame, though visually beautiful, but sometimes it is difficult to distinguish it from reality. It needs to be reviewed. The movie is definitely not for once.
This is a thriller without a thriller, a detective without the usual investigation, a drama without tear and fatality.
The decision to leave is a jump into the sea that should cheer us up. There is a risk of drowning in the complexity of the film, but if you learn to swim, then relax and reflect.
There is no creature in the world more complex, more social and at the same time lonely than man. Every person, long or short, has to overcome hundreds of obstacles and make hundreds of decisions. Some lead to a breakthrough, others to a fall. People may be weak, blame mythical enemies, hypocritical friends, or despicable fate for their failures, but often their problems are the result of their actions. There is no greater enemy for man than himself. And there is no more absurdly tragic fate than the movement by its own fault. But everything would not be so dangerous and difficult if such people destroy only themselves, alas, they often drag others with them into the abyss. In my opinion, the new Korean film “Decision to Leave” is about that – about self-destruction and everything that goes with it.
For a long time there was no painting whose name so accurately reflected its essence. The main decision to leave, obviously, was made by the main character even before the beginning of the picture, even before that small episode of her past, which is designed to explain, if not all, then much. Every next decision on her tragic path is always worse than the last, and every new step only complicates her life. However, it cannot be said that the heroine fully independently made decisions: the self-destruction launched by her is like a rut from which you cannot move, or a mudflow from which you cannot get out, and she herself is only a chip in it, constantly trying not to drown, but to swim to the end, about which she does not yet know. It was not the heroine who controlled the situation in her life, but the situation controlled her. The only, perhaps unconscious, her desire was the withdrawal indicated in the title of the picture, and in the pursuit of this goal, she, like a psychopath, violated any taboos, lost her sense of self-preservation, forgot about her principles and fears. The announced love line in such a situation is not just not the main thing: it is just a touch, designed to show the power of that powerful vital inertia that was chosen once, which can not cope with the seemingly strongest human feeling. The heroine’s choice of such a life path is inexplicable, and even her unconditional existential loneliness, caused by the alienity of the Chinese woman in Korea, and her rejection by China, can not clarify this reality.
In general, in the atmosphere of a melancholy picture, the feeling of nearness of death and withering is very strong as a reflection of the world of its main character, inevitably affecting random people. So, the doctor who advises the main character to take sunbathing in the mornings, reasonably object that in the town in the morning there is a fog, and the sun does not happen, the hero himself is a policeman investigating murders, constantly facing death, and the notorious main character is a nurse for ancient old people, which has one foot in the grave. Here it is important to note that in the concept of self-destruction, its very existence is dangerous not only for its carrier, but also for others, an important symbolic example of which is mold somewhere in the corner of the police pedant’s room, because a person destroying himself will appear in his life, like the same mold that will eat it all if it is not removed in time.
In addition to the philosophical principles in the "Decision to leave" there is a formal-detective plot, which in itself has very little value. The main mystery almost does not bother the main character, which is why, in fact, there is no investigation in the film, although its random result turns out to be both logical and interesting. It’s just that secondary line is a detail that doesn’t deserve much screen time. About the same thing happens with another mysterious story of the second half of the picture, very superficial as a detective story, but deep enough to show the abyss into which the life of the main character has turned.
Given the finale of the film, “The decision to leave” seems to declare the incorrigibility of such situations, and in this it seems right. The desire for some end can be characteristic of individuals, which leads them to always the worst choice, leads to suffering. Why is that? The film has no answer to this question in two and a half hours, only a warning to watch out for such people.
A rather unobvious picture, hiding behind the outer layers of the history of unhappy love the story of an unhappy fate for no reason. She is calm, although at times a little nervous and even unexpected. She's sad and hopeless. It's not about love, it's about life and the amazing paradoxes that sometimes happen in it.
Sense of what is above the mountains and deeper than the ocean...
I was really waiting for this picture and now I finally saw it at the pre-premier screening in the movie!
The action takes place in Busan, where a police officer named He-Joon works in the murder investigation department. The detective sleeps awake, because he is constantly ' kept under control ' detailed photos of victims of unsolved crimes. His wife annoys with excessive organization, colleagues are honored as an idol, but no return and gratitude for such adoration Park can not feel. Everything changes mountains: a middle-aged man falls from a great height on the stones, a professional climber in equipment with a mysterious acronym. The same letters are engraved on the body of his wife, a Chinese woman, So Re. Difficulties in translating from Chinese into Korean, secrets of the past and atypical behavior for a grieving widow draw Park to the suspect more and more, even when all the evidence points to her guilt and the alibi falls apart.
Knowing the work of director Park Chan-ook, the prepared viewer already understands what to expect from his new works. Knowledgeable connoisseurs saw how famously he recast the standard criminal romances into a real extravaganza of revenge (' Oldboy', ' Sympathy for Mr/Mrs. Vengeance'), the classic prose of Emil Zola - into a lush vampire drama (' Thirst'), an art thriller about revenge in ' Vicious Games' and the elegant scam of the British Sarah Waters - in a cool thriller (#39;'). And here the creative Korean plays with Hitchcock's tricks, known since 'Catch a Thief' and 'Dizziness'. Here is only the theme of beautiful fatal strangers manipulating investigators who lost their heads with passion - only a screen, as the director put, first of all, the most unusual romantic film of the year under the guise of a simple police detective.
But what to say, a beautiful and viscous movie that makes you think. The more we delve into the investigation, the more we become entangled and, like a fly in a web, bogged down in unexpected plot twists. There are new bright characters, new facts put everything upside down. Park Chan-uk masterfully increases the tension in the film. In this picture, the amazing acting duo Tan Wei and Park Hae-il. They manage to maintain and increase sexual tension without a single bed scene or a simple episode of nudity. Just amazing how much sensuality can contain the banal use of hand lotion, a joint lunch or a date in the rain.
Believe me, virtuoso directing, absolutely deservedly awarded the prize at the last Cannes Film Festival, is focused on other aspects of the relationship of the main characters, which very quickly move from the format of “#39; policeman and criminal” to the images of two rushing souls and their desire to find common ground.
Confucius famously said that the intelligent find pleasure in the water, and the humane in the mountains. The antithesis of the free, in eternal motion, capable of flowing around any obstacles of the sea and symbolizing the tranquility, immobility, fundamentality of the mountains permeates ' The decision to leave' through. These comparisons are not for nothing, they show us all the attraction and inability of the characters to be with each other.
About ' The Vicious Woman' Easter in general: Mao Zedong's grandson called it Tan Wei after her filming in the erotic scenes of the film ' Enga Li 2007, for which the actress was forbidden to shoot the Chinese government and cut her out of all films. What a twist!!! But our director was not afraid and gave the role to her, a Chinese woman who perfectly played her dialect and knowledge of Korean in this film. Actress Tan Wei is incomparable in the tragic role of a woman for whom intimacy is not important, but a sense of necessity, belonging to someone important. Her So-re is not afraid of death or punishment, as if she is afraid that Hae-Joon will lose attention to her at the end of the investigation, and there will be no more secret spying, flirtatious, almost flirting interrogations and everything will just end by itself, only devastation and loneliness.
Admiring such beauties of entourage and nature (what is the scene under snowfall in the mountains), it is easy not to notice that ' Decision to leave' slightly abuses its aesthetic qualities to cloud the viewer's attention as much as possible. As a result, this is a thrilling movie about love, where of everything ' vice' - the only chaste kiss. And the decision to leave, after which the detective will never forget his suspect.
8 out of 10
Going to the new film Park Chan-wook, being familiar with his past work, I was hoping for something in a familiar directorial manner, but before the session showed the author’s message to the audience, where he said that there will be no hard work, and we will laugh, sad and cry. And he was mostly right...
We got a tragicomic (tragedy no doubt more) dysfunctional love story. He is a police inspector who does his best, lives in two cities, suffers from insomnia, and finds no better solution than watching his suspects at night. She is an immigrant, the widow of a local official who made her his thing. As the investigation of the death of her husband, the main characters begin to fall into the web of secrets and passions, and the viewer will not understand who and why this web is weaving.
On technical points, I note that the prize for directing the Cannes Festival is really deserved - the picture is shot interestingly, inventively and in places is very beautiful.
The sound, on the contrary, is not so memorable, although it seems to me that in the original there is an interesting play on the Chinese and Korean languages, and we have a bunch of strange moments in the dubbing when the characters speak Russian in both cases, and in response they are asked to speak in an understandable language.
From a very pleasant note, without exception, all the characters are as they should be. The main characters are catchy, there is chemistry between them, it is interesting to follow them, the actors play great, especially Tan Wei - the actress gave a performance of her life. Secondary also perfectly perform their tasks - subordinate police officers are comic characters, the wife of the main character - does not cause any emotions either in the viewer or in the main character. The interaction of all with everyone carries the viewer like on a roller coaster - at one moment we are funny, and literally in a second we are already worried or sad.
An interesting point is that despite the love of the Koreans to show comically superior-subordinate relationships, decorating them with usually spontaneous unmotivated violence, stupidity and laziness of all the characters, here we see exactly why this happens. In the film, subordinates, even the youngest and most promising, in every way inferior to their senior boss in all aspects, including physical training, and at the same time everyone is unhappy and does not want to do anything, and those who really try are shown as outcasts. This is the first time in my memory watching a little, but enough Korean cinema.
Of the very subjective disadvantages, I want to note only two things.
First: for me, the story itself, despite the good detective and psychological component, seemed unnecessarily “snotty”, and not even in terms of romance, but in the critical perception of the heroes of all this, the denouement is more like teenage love stories, in which for greater tragedy, not that very logical things happen.
Second, this is the second Korean film (after Parasites), which received awards and critics, including for playing genres, and I do not see any “game” – everything is ordered here. Here's a detective block, here's a romantic block, here's a detective ending, here's a comedy piece, and here's a dramatic ending. All this is so clearly limited that it already cuts my subjective gaze.
Despite the above paragraph, “The decision to leave” is undoubtedly a good movie, cinema in the current Russian film distribution situation is significant.
7 out of 10
In 2007, an incredible picture called “The Lust” was released. And the director she had no less grandiose – Ang Lee, who gave us the films “Crouching Tiger, Invisible Dragon”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Life of Pi” and many others. For one of the main roles, he invited the aspiring Chinese actress Tan Wei.
Lust made a splash in the world of cinema, collecting many European and Asian awards and nominations. And it would seem that now the world for Tan Wei is open, and the studios will tear her apart. Yes, it should have been, but not in China. Lust was primarily about passion, albeit against the backdrop of World War II, and it featured many explicit scenes. And if the partner of the actress on the set Tony Leung Chu Wai (Love Mood, Hero) became only more famous, then tons of criticism fell on the young Tan Wei. The companies broke off advertising contracts with her, and at the height of world fame she was excommunicated from Chinese cinema.
The girl had no choice but to try her hand at a neighboring state, and from time to time she began to appear in Korean paintings.
Many years later, in 2021, no less eminent Korean director Park Chang-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaid) decided to make his new film, and despite the resistance of the screenwriter, invited Tan Wei to star. He watched Lust and dreamed of working with her one day. So in 2022, the film “Decision to Leave” was released, which has already taken the Golden Palm for directing.
The main character is an honest police detective who has sex with his wife once a week and suffers from insomnia. He investigates the death of an elderly man who died in the mountains. The man is left with a young widow, who immediately falls under suspicion. But after seeing her, the detective realizes that he is in love.
And if you think that you already know how this story will end, then I can say with confidence that all your guesses will miss the goal. Korean cinema has always been strikingly different from European and Hollywood and was built according to its own laws. The decision to leave is no exception. It mixes the genres of comedy, tragedy, detective and romance, but the result is a unique work that touches feelings more than reason, and leaves many questions unanswered.
Do I recommend watching this movie? Definitely. Whether you like it is hard to say. But your soul will rest.
The attitude to Korean cinema in the world recently, but forever changed “Parasites”
In the West, it began to watch not only the audience, but also decision-makers.
They gave one of the Cannes awards this year to the controversial "Decision to Leave."
Since it will not be possible to understand it with the left hemisphere, it is better to lower your legs and just give up, expecting that in the end this bright multicolored jellyfish will flow into something more meaningful than just ice cream for dinner.
This is not an action movie or a comedy, not a movie or a theater, not the East, but not the West.
Emotions that cannot be solved, intonations that contradict the meaning of the scene, the answer is not to the question asked: most likely, the Cannes jury was paralyzed precisely by a vain misunderstanding of the essence under the silent cries of SOS of their own common sense.
In the center of events is a cop from the homicide department suffering from insomnia, whose predictable life becomes a toy in the hands of a quirky emigrant named Sol Paradise, who killed or did not kill her own nasty elderly husband.
Through sticks and circles on the mobile screen, GG tries to unravel not only the mystery of the crime, but also his own wrong feelings to the suspect – obsessed with her beauty, he drags the investigation, drowning him in the gloomy fog of a coastal village without a name.
Sometimes the process is more important than the result, and spontaneity destroys logic and then there is nothing left but to decide and leave.
Tell me, do you like Korean cinema? Say, the work of Kim-ki-duk? If yes, then feel free to go to the new film directed by Park Chan-uk “The decision to leave”.
Beautiful film, already abundantly caressed in Cannes by film critics.
Atmospheric such a mixture of crime drama, melodrama and thriller. A story of death and incomprehensible passion. There will be a smart police detective with her big cockroaches in her head and personal life, as well as a genuine oriental femme fatale with even bigger cockroaches and a bunch of secrets and skeletons in her closet. And beautiful views of the mountains and the sea. Passion and throwing.
In fact, this film appeals to some archetypes of local-historical Confuncian civilization. Perhaps, for full immersion and understanding, one must always take into account the specific historical and cultural subtext of this whole story. But a lot can be understood. Understand and disagree. Or just accept. In any case, it was very interesting.
The detective story here is quite a success. And a picture of the final twist... Thank goodness this is not my first Korean movie.
Good movie. I definitely recommend Oriental and Korean cinema lovers.
I don’t recommend just having fun for the evening. Protect your nervous energy.
Resume: Controversial, but definitely strong cinema. And playing on the viewer's nerves.