By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Chan-wook Park
Starring: Go Kyung-Pyo | Lee Jung-hyun | Park Hae-il | Shin-Young Kim | Tang Wei
Original language title: Heojil kyolshim
Country: south_korea
Year: 2022
Running time: 139
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12477480/reference/
Chris says: “Both the camerawork and editing go a long way towards transforming what is at its core a standard romantic thriller Hitchcock could’ve eked out sixty years ago (or Wong Kar-wai in the 1990s.) As others have said, it lacks the realization and resonance of Park’s last feature THE HANDMAIDEN. Still, between its intuitive use of water as foreboding doom and a similar thing happening in the second season of ‘The White Lotus’ (which I finished later that night), I can’t help but say someone should hook Park up with Mike White. 4 cats”
Michael says: “A convoluted noir plot with a pair of compelling lead characters and incredible style make DECISION TO LEAVE a fun, engrossing watch for me. This romantic, suspense thriller’s plot is a little bit hard to follow, and maybe plays a little loosey-goosey with the story, but I did find the performances from the two leads to be quite good, and they really drew me in. Most importantly, rarely have I seed the placement of the camera so carefully thought out and important to viewing experience of a film as this one. Park Chan-wook (THE HANDMAIDEN) really knows what a difference camera placement and visual construction means to the film medium, and it pays off. 4 1/2 cats”