Decision to Leave (2022)

Decision to Leave (2022)

Co-written, Directed and Produced by: Park Chan-wook
Best Director at Cannes Film Festival 2022

The film takes off with a simple premise - a murder mystery and as the film progresses there are a lot of layers added to it. And it keeps getting added to a point where it feels a tad bit overwhelming. It being a murder mystery, obviously there are a lot of plot points and details which drive the story. But beyond that, this film has the angle where the detective falls in love with the woman whose husband is dead. There's infidelity, a murder mystery, and tons of interpersonal moral dilemmas. It's also overwhelming because they don't give us enough time to process the bizarre plot points. I felt the same while watching Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden (2016). All of this with an underlying mystery throughout the film, makes the film's experience a little weird. The most unique thing about the film is the overall tone, and the thing is the tone is a derivative of the story. You can't have this tone with a lot of other stories. So here, style and substance are almost intertwined with each other.

Talking about the style of the film, the way the film is shot, edited and scored adds creates the film's texture. The camera angles are slanted, distorted. The magnification and the lensing is weird. There's a shrieky dramatic mood to the score. And above all this, what surprised me the most in the film is the fluidity. It matches the pace of the current day editing style. It's so snappy, fragmented, moves so quick and jumps from one to another. All these things added, the film has a very strong directorial voice. Almost as if it can be a tonal reference to a lot of new films/shows.