Park Chan Wook
Decision to leave

If you have the Park Chan-wook of "Oldboy" in mind, and it fascinated you, forget it. "Decision to Leave" (which in Italy should have been titled "The Woman of Mystery," but luckily for us, the idea was abandoned) is a mystery film, albeit unconventional, closer to Hitchcock (in fact, the starting point is the eternal "Vertigo," frequently copied since the '70s by Brian De Palma & Co) where all forms of violence are erased, and the sex scenes are so fleeting that we hardly remember them by the end of the film. It must be said, however, that the film is magnificent, at least fascinating, and unfolds with a circular and rhythmic narration that leaves no escape for the viewer, culminating in the incredible, suspended, finale with the protagonist lost among the waves of the sea.

Speaking of Hitchcock. The plot is simple: a policeman must investigate the case of a man who seems, and I emphasize seems, to have died accidentally after a mountain hike. The much younger wife of the deceased husband emerges, who does not seem too upset by the unfortunate event. The policeman gradually falls in love with her, and between the two, something develops that dangerously hovers between love and momentary infatuation. The woman is not so foreign to her husband's death (no spoilers as to how and why), but our policeman is transferred, not before having buried all evidence against the woman. Thirteen months later, in another district of Busan (a port city in South Korea where the film is set), the policeman has to solve another more or less similar case, and the woman from the previous case reappears. More cannot be said.

The director plays with the viewer like a cat with a mouse, inserting misleading clues and suggesting sex through gestures and not the act itself (the first real moment when the two understand, or at least he believes, that they love each other is during a dinner at the police station, where the hands of the two protagonists, the food, and some all-too-obvious glances are framed), and halfway through the film, just as it happened in "Vertigo," we comprehend the woman's involvement in her husband's death. At that point, even our perception of the protagonists changes: we hate her, pity him. The last half hour is a crescendo of situations that throw the policeman into an inferno, first professional and then personal, from which there seems (and indeed will be) no way out.

It is an unconventional mystery, as previously mentioned, because Park Chan-wook's visual style is not Hitchcock's; it is more frantic, dynamic, anarchic, sometimes deliberately chaotic, and does not disdain the use of technology in the final resolution of some narrative links, but the idea of jumping from one point to another in the story, opening doors that one does not know if they will ever be closed, is typically Hitchcockian, just as "Decision to Leave," in the end, can be considered a mystery in every sense. The only note of violence (but it really takes some) is the (almost) lethal bite of a turtle.

Presented at Cannes 2022, where it won the Palme d'Or for Best Director, Park Chan-wook seems to have turned a corner. Such a film, truly, was not expected, and certainly, it did not please everyone. His admirers found it "softened," but it’s an old story, like when, after "Pulp Fiction," "Jackie Brown" came out, which is beautiful, but at the time, the audience perhaps expected a sequel to the previous film. Great authors never remain the same; otherwise, they wouldn't be great.