Directed by : Park Chan-wook

The moment you said you loved me, your love is over. The moment your love ends, my love begins.

Park Hae-il and Tang Wei in a still from 'Decision to Leave'

Spoilers ahead... 


A man is found dead at a mountain peak in Busan, South Korea. Detective Cop Jang Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) reaches the crime scene and starts investigation to find if it was a suicide or a murder. Jang immediately suspects the dead man's wife Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei) having some role to play in it. The more he tries to find, the more drawn he feels towards Song, a building irresistible desire. 

The fact that Jang Hae-joon suffers from insomnia and travels back and forth a lot from his workplace to Ipo where his wife Mee-jee (Jung Yi-seo) lives, works well to display the kind of persona he has, one who feels active whenever a new case comes (a cliched) and also deprived of sleep his mind isn't that fresh which is why he gets obsessed with Song Seo-rae even when it looks clear that she is the murderer. 

Song Seo-rae is an interesting character, you would feel suspicious about her. The way she behaves, the unusual laugh, everything gives that mysterious feeling about her and we never really are told the direct answers. It's a reason why I couldn't enjoy the 3rd act completely as I just wanted some valid reasons for what she was doing and why she chose that disastrous ending to her life.  Her reasons for killing aren't really justified even if I bought she was clever enough to not get caught. 

Showing, Song Seo-rae is chinese and Jang Hae- joon a Korean, also adds to more confusion as many scenes they use translator app on phone which I felt wasn't fully translating the said words. There's a song related to 'foggy night' mentioned in the movie and also the scene where Jang's wife questions Song as to why she would come live in Ipo with her new husband just to enjoy the fog when that is the very reason most people prefer to stay away. The whole 'Fog' idea probably plays to the character of Song and also the entire film, you just can't draw any direct conclusions. 

The style of narration also further adds to the mystery because many times we see innovative way of filming scenes when a character isn't really with another character face to face but here director shows us the conversation happening in that manner always giving a false (or maybe true) sense that they are much closer to each other than it looks. 

The comical moments come early on mostly through Jang's colleague/friend at work, otherwise the narrative just stays on the romantic side that is always building towards an erotic moment which the director shys away from everytime.

Overall, Decision to Leave is a film that I liked, its atmospheric beauty is a thing to admire, if only Song Seo-rae character wasn't as complex as she is, and some of the questions weren't left unanswered. 

My Rating : 6/10