Decision to Leave (2022)

When Park Chan-wook, the master of the brutal revenge thriller, directs a crime noir, a dizzying plot is to be expected. But the South Korean virtuoso director, smiling smugly, evades those expectations and presents with „The Woman in the Mist“ a romantic melodrama between Inspector Jang (Park Hae-il), suffering from insomnia, and Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the main suspect in two murder cases at once – or was it three? Or four?

Chan-wook increasingly neglects the crime narrative in favor of a heartbreaking love story that progresses – in that order! – from total obsession to subtle togetherness to utopian longing. Grand romantic gestures: absent. Instead, the film lets ambiguous glances and casual touches just happen, uses its characters as energetic poles that attract, repel. Brings emotions that flare up and go out again, lets funny humor follow explicit violence.

Every image, every dissolve has a breathtaking beauty that serves only the logic inherent in the work. When the viewer looks through the eyes of a dead man, when X-ray images transform into bodies, and when silent bird’s-eye views linger for what feels like eternities, these are not stagings, but consistent means that make loss and desire tangible.