Decision to Leave

When you direct a film as good as 'Oldboy' early in your career I suspect it is a blessing and a curse. Park Chan-wook directed one of the greatest films of all time back in 2003. That's got to feel pretty good. The problem is that everything you produce after that is going to be compared to that masterpiece - be it right or wrong to do so. It can go the other way too of course, where you make a mediocre film but people know what you're capable of and so give you credit for intending things that weren't actually there. I wonder if a bit of that happened with 'Decision to Leave'. I'm not seeing what other people seem to have found in this one. The problem that I found with 'Decision to Leave' is that it heavily relies on you buying into the relationship between the two leads - and I simply didn't. I saw no chemistry and nothing else to sell it. Without that working this is an arduous 2 hours 20 minutes. The film is quite a complex as well. There is a lot of subtlety and jarring editing. I think it's a film that would get better with every watch, however I didn't enjoy it enough the first time around to do that. 5/10.

Not sure if I'm watching the same movie as like other high rating viewers! The story is so flat and so so slow. I look forward to any special or mysterious elements but it ends up nothing coming up. I love Tang Wei and understand her extra effort in speaking Korean but it can't save the movie!

Decision to Leave

source: Decision to Leave

A slow dull unwanted love story. Does sacrificing her life makes the Love greater? Overall a dissapointment. It's poetic but emotionless, there's no connection or chemistry between the two lead characters, its like childish love at adult age. Why? They know the reality and yet wanted to prove that her love is pure. This story would be good to read in a book but definitely not for visual movie. It makes it more old. Definitely not a worthy movie from the Mastermind (park chan-wook).

source: Heojil kyolshim

Slow-burn romantic thriller which Park Chan-wook's audacious directing made up for somewhat more subdued script. The mystery didn't truly take firm hold of me but i enjoyed every bit of Park & Tang's exquisite performances toward its imminent conclusion..

After learning that this film won an award at the Cannes Film Festival, I watched it as soon as it was released. But the story was messy. There were too many scenes everywhere that needed interpretation. I was yawning frequently for the entire two and a half hours. Perhaps there are many people who do not understand the movie properly and want to see it again because of that. This movie is truly overrated.

The movie is finally released in Korea 2 days ago and I've watched the movie yesterday. Since I'm a Korean, I've watched the movie without any subtitle and It was a bit difficult sometimes to understand what Tang Wei is saying in Korean. Sometimes I didn't understand but I could follow the movie and I can say her acting was good. But I think I want to watch the movie again with Korean subtitle when it's possible. Anyways, the movie was great. I think it's a romance film but with Park Chan Wook''s style. Also, I was happy that Park Hae il's face on close up moment remind me again the memories of murder movie. Watch this movie when you can. I highly recommend it.

I watched this completely unknown about its plot nor genre. I only knew it won Cannes Festival 2022 and it will represent South Korea in Oscar 2023. So I have high hopes, especially it's from director Park Chan Wook. And my hopes wasn't disappointed. First half of the movie went like crime mystery movie, who's kill who, kept the audience guessing all the time. And then came the second half, the love story, a love story between a broken man and a broken woman, who found comfort in each other. You would understand why this movie won Cannes 2022 after the third act. It's completely surreal and tragic. Salute to Park Chan Wook, who once again made a great movie! Kudos to Park Hae Il and Tang Wei who also delivered excellent performances! Mesmerizing 9/10.