Decision to Leave: LFF Film Review
I have read so many raves reviews for Decision to Leave so I can safely say I’m in the minority because it didn’t really work for me.
The film follows police detective Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) as he investigates the death of a man who was found at the bottom of a secluded cliffside. All signs point to the fact he was pushed – but who did it? The prime suspect is the victim’s mysterious wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei), and despite his better judgement, Hae-jun falls in love with her.
Park Chan-wook is known for films such as Oldboy, The Handmaiden and Stoker, brilliantly erotic and/or violent thrillers, so I expected Decision to Leave to be in the same vein. However, it marks a departure from his usual genres as this movie begins as a crime mystery and becomes more of a romance later. I really enjoyed the intriguing cat-and-mouse story and the random moments of laugh-out-loud humour in the strong first half but it lost me with the snoozy second half.
My biggest issue is that I didn’t find the central romance particularly believable and therefore couldn’t get invested in it. I didn’t care if they got together or not so the story didn’t grab my attention and keep me hooked. Because I didn’t buy into the story, I was aware of the plodding pace and excessive runtime (2 hours 18 minutes) and had totally checked out by the time we reached the conclusion, which is designed to be heartbreakingly sad.
I have no complaints about the actors, I think they did well with what they were given, but the story wasn’t interesting enough and their romance wasn’t convincing enough. But on a positive note, I appreciated the gorgeous cinematography and the intriguing camera movements.
I do not understand the critical acclaim for Decision to Leave because I was utterly underwhelmed by it. This is probably because Chan-wook’s Oldboy and The Handmaiden are extraordinary pieces of cinema and so my expectations were too high.
Seen as part of the London Film Festival. In cinemas from Friday 21st October