Decision to Leave | Misdirection Done Right

Known for his intense subject matter and fancy actions sequences, Park Chan-wook's newest film, Decision to Leave is anything but extreme - at least on the surface.

Park is often misunderstood as a director who prefers style over story; but in my opinion (and he says so too in his interviews), I think his style is always chosen meticulously to serve the story, and if it wouldn't do any good to amplify the theme of the film, he wouldn't unnecessarily use it. The same goes with everything else you often see in his films, including violence and action. While Decision to Leave may seem like an obvious story with blatant symbolism, it functions more like a visual poem that expresses its emotions with its rhythm, colour, tone, images, and sounds.

It's a constant clash between complexity and simplicity, clarity and obscurity, mountains and oceans, Hae-jun and Seo-rae...

Beautiful.

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Extra Credits:

Timestamp
0:00 Introduction
1:08 A Boring Scene
2:00 The Trick
5:15 The Spoiler Shots
6:26 Misdirection
7:43 Actions
8:20 Repeating Ambiguity
8:40 Colors
10:18 Vertical Movement
12:14 Eyedrops
13:25 The Final Mystery
14:42 Decision to Leave

[SpikimaMovies]

What's Park Chan-wook's best film to date? What did you think of Decision to Leave?
Watch Decision to Leave for free at Mubi.com/spikimamovies

[nightee]

Another thing that I love from the interrogation scene is how strangely in sync they were. It can be seen when they were cleaning up after they had dinner. For newly acquainted people, there should have been fumbling or sort of clashing into doing stuff for the first time together, but they did it like they knew what the other would do. There may be a language barrier but their gestures and movement were dancing.

Oh and I love how Seo-rae explores the pockets of the detective and manages to remember where they are, just getting the lip balm amongst all of his pockets. While his wife has to take her time, finding what she is looking for.

[samsungminlee]

I can't believe I never picked up on the focus shifts in the interrogation scenes on the big screen! What an awesome video that helps us see Park's creativity and care for his craft

[iambeagranada]

"their decision to leave was never meant to be fulfilled it was just another phrase for a wish to stay." damn even that encapsulates everything

[FinancialShinanigan]

The detective's wife working at a nuclear power plant fits in well with the whole water motif since reactors need fresh water (detective) to cool the rods to avoid a meltdown (their shaky relationship) but SeoRae (salt water) comes into the picture, contaminates the detective, and cause their marriage to go into meltdown, much like how the tsunami crashed into and caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster…or I'm just overanalyzing lol

[GrainneMhaol]

This is my favourite from Park Chan-Wook. The restraint he shows allows the tension to grow, and yet his sumptuous visual style is so seductive

[hiranyabhbaishya]

I think i have understood the ending: She realized 2 imp things about him, 1. He can never fully allow himself to love her without feeling guilty and regret because of what he did. 2. His prime obsession of his life were those unresolved cases. So technically the only way to keep her in his mind was to be one of those unresolved cases and also dying was her way of taking responsibility of her actions(murders) and protect him. Also just my thought: maybe that "deep sea" thing was to confuse him so that he would look into the sea and not sand

[yanni_ko]

As soon as I saw the interrogation scene I was completely puzzled on how it was filmed. Ive never seen a shot with different focus points on the same scene in that way before. My guess is that it was shot with a deep enough focal plane where both characters and their reflections are in focus and then digital defocus is applied where necessary. Amazing technical direction as always from one of my fave directors.
Great analysis as always Spikima!

[romerobjuancarlos]

Man this film ruled. It was easily one of the best films that came out last year and I'm sure I'll be rewatching it many many times. Park Chan-Wook is without a doubt one of the best to ever do it.

[olliemartinelli]

The level of visual detail and creativity is simply astounding, Park Chan Wook is undoubtedly one of the greatest to do it. I think the testament to his genius is the fact that something so intricate and complex is presented to you in a way that is fully entrancing and always entertaining. To me this is what cinema should be - finding the balance between pushing the medium as an art form and never ostracising the viewer.

[blmnkrnz]

I need to aggressively rewatch this over and over again so I can continue appreciating the visual poetry park chan wook so graciously shared with us

[renemarzukful]

Great video! In retrospect, it seems telling that Song Seo-rae omits the last part of Confucius's quote: “The wise love water, the good love mountains. The wise are active, the good are tranquil. The wise are joyful, the good enjoy long life.”

[corbinbishop]

Dude.. This was beautiful! I did my first rewatch last night and was shocked at how visually perfect this film was. He crafted such a heartbreaking and beautiful story all with imagery and sound. A visual poem is a perfect way to describe it. Every single shot has insane depth and meaning. Well done! This shot up my favorite of the year list quickly.

[danijones]

i saw this in theater, it was brilliant. park chanwook truly is a genius. his films are always so meticulously thought out & have such depth. i adore his work.

[danieldelariva]

We will be talking about this movie for decades. Even though it received critical appraisal, it’s still highly underrated.

[molokuro]

"It's a beautiful poem", perfect! This movie is beautiful, mezmerising and poetic.

[evanha]

미쳤다.... 수많은 리뷰도 보고 감독님과 만날 수 있는 행사까지 갔는데 이정도로 가슴이 울리는 해석은 처음이에요. 특히 초점에 대한 부분은 소름이 돋네요. 게다가 편집이나 영상 내 자막도 넘 찰떡이라 해석영상 보다가 감정적으로 이입해버렸어요 ㅋㅋㅋ후 좋은 영상 만들어주셔서 감사합니다!

[Fareeha]

Imo, I think Studio Ghibli movies (especially ones directed by Hayao Miyazaki) use "boring scenes" really well, scenes where they just show the mundane parts of life e.g. washing dishes / chores etc which make the world and characters feel full and alive. Which I feel is prevalent in alot of Asian cinema and animation if thats make sense. Great video ❤❤

[orangeandwater]

also, that last scene of Hae-jun is the same as her wallpaper. I guess, he finally understand Seo-ra

[matttravers]

Decision to Leave already blew my mind, but your analysis blew it even further. Holy smokes. What a delicate web Park Chan-wook weaves