Review: Decision To Leave

While I don't think Park Chan-Wook is quite the masterful film-maker people set him out to be. I can certainly agree his craftmanship is of a very high quality.

I think like many I got introduced to his works when I saw 2003's Oldboy. Since then, I have certainly enjoyed the majority of his work. His purposeful style of camerawork, recurring themes of revenge and confidence to take risks has made him quite a favourite with fans of independent cinema. However, I am still waiting for his masterpiece. The craft is most definitely there. But I think the right story and strong performances are still missing to be the complete package for me.

It was clear to see early on this it wasn't going to be as innovative. But instead, we were getting some homages to classic film story-telling with modern edge's.

It's got a noir style tone with a non-linear narrative. So already it's going to be complex viewing as is with most of Park's films. I got some similarities with Vertigo as throughout the film you never knew who to trust and there's complicated romance involved. It gave those similarities a modern twist which I liked it as it made great use of modern technology.

I like how it develops the aspect of the story you don't expect, and it gives us a memorable and tragic. finale.

But while I can most definitely appreciate it's style, tone, camerawork and use of tension, it just never felt as gripping or remarkable compared to the directors other works or similar films of this genre. I also felt the plot felt stretched and they were adding strands that felt there just to fill the duration.

The performances are understated and fitted the tone perfectly. There weren't any real standouts. But they all worked the style that Park was going for.

This might be one of those you appreciate on a second viewing. But for now, I see this as a solid crime noir that is well directed and shot with some cool symbolic moments and tense sequences. It has those vintage Park moments and covers themes such as desire over morals fairly well. But I think the execution is a bit more muted and the colour palette is grimmer than his other works. So that might be why I wasn't going nuts for this. But there was still plenty to appreciate and like about it to recommend this.

Rating: 7/10