Decision to Leave

Cover for Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook
Star Rating
★★★★★
Reviewer's Rating
Jan 9, 2023

A man is found dead at the base of a mountain peak.  Was it a suicide?  Could it be murder?  With the deceased's wife as the prime potential suspect, the investigator in charge of the case begins to tumble down a rabbit hole of obsession as he investigates her.  

The thing that makes Park Chan-wook's films so special, for me at least, is while other films employ dream sequences, or visions, or flashbacks, no other filmmaker uses them in a story without feeling a separation between real and unreal.  Using picture and sound, he somehow harnesses the subconscious in a visceral way.

Comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo provide a good frame of reference.  This too is a story of murder, obsession, love...but this is far better.  

Reviewed by Zachary C
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