Decision to Leave

When you watch a film by acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook, you're likely to sit through something intriguing, complex and incisive about the ...

The smitten Hae-joon stakes Seo-reo out, lives in his car outside her house, watches her and actually imagines himself being right there with her in the same place as though he’s next to her when sequences showing the truth are revealed. The helmer, who won the Best Director award for this flick at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, actually names a Korean song called “The Mist” as a source of inspiration for this story. The man can’t get her out of his mind and neither can we. Now, when the same strange morbid thing happens again in a Black Widow sense with a new husband also ending up stone-cold departed, matters come back to square one when Hae-joon and Seo-rae cross connected paths again. It’s about the woman playing with love for the man. Although you can’t really tell they’re limited since the lady speaks the foreign language like a native (Tang is superb switching back and forth between languages, being married in real life to Korean director Kim Tae-yong). Maybe it’s her irresistibly sensual part-bold, part-vulnerable temptress ways. We’ll just tell you that the plot adds one curious layer upon another when Park, as is his trademark fondness, tests the depths of emotion, passion and sexual tension between the two leads in the movie’s beautifully-framed cold and misty setting. He wants to believe her story and confirm her alibi to prove that Seo-rae is truly innocent. The baffled detective handling her case, Hae-joon (Park Hae-il, War Of The Arrows, Moss), cannot understand why Seo-rae goes straight back to work as a caregiver in an old folks’ home right after her husband dies. Cue the new woman’s solution for his sleeplessness in a good bedroom scene. Somehow, this case is uniquely different as the cop becomes captivated primarily by his new charge’s natural beguiling beauty and unnatural personal origin. When you see Chinese actress Tang Wei (Lust, Caution), you know that she’s a marvellously subtle performer who can exude an enigmatic aura of the most unreadable kind too.