Film Screening:
Decision to Leave
(Park Chan-wook, 2022, 138 min, South Korea, Korean and Chinese w/ English subtitles, DCP)
— Introduced by Dr. Jung-Min Mina Lee (AMES)
Busan detective Hae-joon finds that he’s increasingly obsessed with a puzzling new case: a middle-aged businessman has mysteriously fallen to his death during a rock climbing expedition. Upon discovering photos of his abused wife, a Chinese national named Seo-rae, Hae-joon begins to suspect it wasn’t an accident, all the while becoming emotionally and erotically drawn to her. From this Hitchcockian situation, director Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, Oldboy) weaves a swelling, expanding, ever more complex tale about a possible black widow and the investigator who just might be fashioning his own web. One of Park’s most enveloping and accomplished thrillers, which earned him the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Decision to Leave is a constantly surprising, elegantly constructed film that builds in power to a truly haunting denouement.
“At the peak of his powers, full of wit and melancholy, Park Chan-wook creates the platonic ideal of the romantic, elaborate noir thriller.” – Variety
Screen/Society screenings are free and open to the public. (COVID-19 Info)
