Decision To Leave

Decision To Leave is a ‘cool’ film; it is Film Noir. Oddly though, l laughed more than you would expect for such a film and that is not a bad thing. Decision To Leave is consistently in tension; both drama and comedy, edgy and cliché, romance and thriller, all the time dancing between boundaries of genres but never bound by one.

Decision To Leave has all the traditions of Film Noir and in some ways’ has tones of a classic Hitchcock. Oblique camera angles, off centred close ups and at times, claustrophobic interiors, all echo those techniques that cinema greats have used long before. I like that. I like that a film can be part of a lineage of cinema, building on traditions that makes movies, and being in a cinema, different from any other experience of moving image.

Lead actors Tang Wei (left) and Park Hae-il (right)

Director Park Chan-wook reinforces anxiety and unease by collaging scenes, overlapping past and present, facts and fiction, reality and potential. These effects reinforce the audiences discomfort and pleasure at the same time. Deservingly, Park Chan-wook won the Best Director Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Credit should also be given to Kim Ji-yong for the cinematography, Film Noir without beautiful imagery is just a series of dimly lit stills. This is the story of a detective, Hae-jun (played by Park Hae-il) whom ‘falls’ for murder suspect, Seo-rae (played by Tang Wei). This is hardly a new story, but perhaps all stories are old; perhaps all stories have been told before. Maybe it is not what you are saying but how you are saying it.

Decision To Leave is a modest film, unnerving and enjoyable at the same time. It is not the sort of film where you do not have to think nor is it so abstract that you feel like you are fighting to ‘stay in the game’. I said at the beginning it was a ‘cool’ and it is. You should see it.

S.W

Strawberry Guy

James Turrell