In the first teaser for Decision to Leave, the next film from famous filmmaker Park Chan-wook, a detective finds himself entangled in a web of “deceit and desire.” The trailer premiered on Mubi’s arthouse site on Thursday, a full month before the romantic thriller is released in theatres throughout the United States. The decision to Leave has both the elegant thrills and psychological drama for which filmmaker Park Hae-il is known, and stars Park Hae-il as the investigator and Tang Wei as the lady he accuses of murdering her husband. In the opening scene of this trailer, a man jumps off a cliff and dies.
Whether he tripped or was shoved is unclear. When Detective Hae-jun arrives at the scene, he immediately suspects the deceased’s wife, Seo-rae, of being the perpetrator. She has what the police call a “strong alibi,” yet her interactions with them are odd. In the midst of a particularly heated interview, she even seems to laugh. When the detective and the person suspected of murder start dating, loyalties are strained and tensions rise. Park’s Vengeance trilogy, which also includes Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, is widely regarded as one of the most influential film series of all time. In the United States, Spike Lee adapted the cult classic Oldboy, for which he received a Palme d’Or nomination.
It’s still one of his most well-known works. With the English-language thriller Stoker (2013) and the Netflix series The Little Drummer Girl (2018), the director sought his own American crossover. His most recent film, The Handmaiden, was a psychosexual drama that was nominated for the Palme d’Or. In addition to receiving a Palme d’Or nomination for his work on Decision to Leave, Park took up the festival’s top prize for Best Director. Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and cemented 2019 as possibly the zenith of a new style of Korean filmmaking that swept the globe in the early 2000s.
The trailer for Decision to Leave has some of the slick social satire and dark comedy of Parasite, as well as several references to 1960 Korean classic The Housemaid. The Korean theatrical release of Decision to Leave occurred in June. The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The picture, which also stars Go Kyung-Pyo, Yong-woo Park, and Lee Jung-Hyun, will premiere in North American cinemas on October 14 and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 21, respectively.
Synopsis
From a high summit in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. To what extent did he take a leap of faith, or was he pushed? Once at the site, investigator Hae-joon begins to suspect the deceased man’s wife, Seo-rae. As he continues to delve into the research, though, he finds himself entangled in a web of lies and temptation.