After «The Handmaiden» (KO 2016) Park Chan-wook comes back to western cinemas with «Decision to Leave» an aesthetic yet original thriller with a very up to date groove. A classy korean police officer in his early 40ies meets a woman of chinese decent, suspected of having killed her husband during a mountain trekking. She denies it and he slowly falls for her charms until finally agreeing to destroy the ominous smartphone, which shows she was actually on the mountain top, when her husband fell from the cliff…

He is married to the perfect korean wife, who seems to suffer from OCD and works for a nuclear plant. The first part of the film is set in Busan. Later the police officer and his wife meet the Sino-Korean woman in a local market, where they live. She is now dating a super muscly gangster and lives the high life with him in a super exclusive villa. The encounter between the two couples is very awkward and only the beginning of a new murder case in which the Sino-Korean woman is involved.

Awarded for best “Mise en Scène” at Cannes 2022 the film is a blast for eyes and ears. Beautiful urban landscapes and quaint scenery will make you want to plan a trip to South Korea and for those used to Korean films the violence of certain scenes won’t be surprising.