What happens when an object of suspicion becomes a case of obsession?
Winner of Best Director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) returns with a seductive romantic thriller that takes his renowned stylistic flair to dizzying new heights.
From a mountain peak in South Korea, a businessman plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il, The Host) arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei, Lust, Caution) may know more than she initially lets on. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, Hae-joon finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire, proving that the darkest mysteries lurk inside the human heart.
With nods toward classic Hollywood and Hitchcok’s Vertigo, Decision to Leave is an essential masterwork from the legendary Park Chan-wook, infused with elegance, ingenuity and a knife-edge precision that truly cannot be matched.
What the critics are saying:
The film is a box of secret compartments; just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, one more panel springs open.
Stephanie Zacharek
TIME Magazine
[Park Chan-wook's] perspective is unmistakable in exploring the dark and
twisted ways in which people relate to each other... So sumptuous,
wrong, and fun.
Christy Lemire
FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
If the erotic thrillers of the past explored the dangers of lust, Park
Chan-wook explores the risks of longing. His take on the genre isn’t
just sexy; it’s playful and mordant and convoluted -- and it begs to be
rewatched.
Shirley Li
The Atlantic