Known for the Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy ve Lady Vengeance), Park Chan-wook’s movie “Decision to Leave” carries his signature and marks his first feature film after The Handmaiden. It won the “Best Director” award at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in 2022. Additionally, “Decision to Leave” was nominated for “Best International Film” from South Korea at the 95th Academy Awards and received numerous other nominations and awards.

The movie begins with two detectives shooting at the police range and discussing the increasing number of murders during good weather. The team goes to investigate the death of a man who fell from a mountain while climbing and realizes it was a beautiful day at the scene. Detective Hae-joon is assigned to investigate this strange death and starts looking into the victim’s wife, Seo-rae, as the prime suspect.

Seo-rae is a mysterious woman and a nurse who provides care for elderly individuals. She has a gentle and cautious demeanor, which brings tranquility to her surroundings. On the other hand, Hae-joon is a meticulous and organized man, a serious and skilled detective who pays attention to every detail. His job of observing and analyzing events and people seems to be an integral part of his character. The two characters complement each other, occupying distant roles of interrogator and interrogated, and become more curious about each other.

In the following days, Hae-joon discovers a clue that suggests Seo-rae might have killed her husband by pushing him off the mountain. This revelation shatters Hae-joon psychologically. However, he decides to close the case as a suicide, concealing Seo-rae’s true crime.

After some time, Seo-rae and Hae-joon coincidentally cross paths again, and Seo-rae has remarried someone else. Their encounters are again related to a suspicious death. This time, Hae-joon maintains a strict and distant attitude, determined not to repeat his previous mistake. However, the distance between them will not last long. They meet on a snowy night on top of a mountain. Though Hae-joon is initially reserved, he eventually accompanies Seo-rae. In this meeting, Seo-rae seems to bid a kind of farewell. While she doesn’t explicitly express her decision to leave life, she seems to reconcile with her past struggles.

“Decision to Leave” captivates the audience with its powerful cinematography, making it impossible to escape its gripping experience. Lost in the tumultuous waves of this complex narrative, the movie leaves us wondering if Seo-rae has truly disappeared or if she has found her most enduring, protected, and elevated place in Hae-joon’s mind and heart. When Seo-rae decided to leave life, did she anticipate that her existence would be both unbearable yet indispensable to Hae-joon? The movie delves deep into these intricacies of their relationship, compelling viewers to contemplate the characters’ inner worlds with great depth.

In summary, “Decision to Leave” goes beyond being just a crime and thriller movie, entwining itself with themes of unity and separation, integration and loss. The movie follows Detective Hae-joon as he delves into the mysterious past of Seo-rae, exploring the complexities of their relationship and the depths of the will to survive.