No.95 SEP/OCT ’22 £8 TRUTH & MOVIES ISSUE 95 FEATURE CONTENTS P.06 P.22 Lead Review: Park Chan-wook: Decision to Leave A Space Odyssey Hannah Strong grapples with the A dossier of five essays exploring the nerve-rattling melodrama of Park significance of rooms and interior spaces Chan-wook’s stunning latest. in the cinema of Park Chan-wook. P.10 P.34 Shadows and Fog The Ballad of Scottie Iana Murray talks to the enigmatic and Madeleine Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook about the precision required to make a Mark Asch and Sophie Monks Kaufman film like Decision to Leave. enter into a dialogue on the interpretive vortex that is Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. P.16 Animal Instinct P.42 Ten Green Bottles Actor Tang Wei on her extraordinary, multifaceted central performance in Jake Cole celebrates another – and very Park Chan-wook’s new film. different – Korean maestro, the maker of acerbic, tipsy relationship miniatures, Hong Sang-soo. P.20 A Dark Turn P.48 Korean leading man Park Hae-il on why Threads #23: he represents a new kind of character for Park Chan-wook. The Plaster Christina Newland pulls off the cinematic plaster to see what’s left underneath. 06 LEAD REVIEW Directed by PARK CHAN-WOOK Starring TANG WEI, PARK HAE-IL, GO KYUNG-PYO Released 21 OCTOBER Decision to Leave Having set the violent standard for modern Korean cinema with his film Oldboy, writer/director Park Chan-wook moves to something more languid and quietly profound with with his intensely romantic latest. I nvoking the words of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, of poor, traumatised captive Oh Dae-su in Oldboy, or Izumi Seo-rae – the femme fatale at the heart of Park Chan- and Nam’s clandestine love affair in The Handmaiden. In wook’s 11th narrative feature, Decision to Leave – issues Park’s films, love and suffering are merely different sides of a stark warning to Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), the earnest the same coin. Yet the influence of Vertigo upon his work has detective investigating her husband’s death during a hike: never been as evident as it is in Decision to Leave, where a “Wise people admire the sea. Benevolent people admire the detective’s acrophobia is traded for insomnia, as he pursues mountains. I am not benevolent.” Despite this cryptic caution impossible cold cases in Busan and desperately longs for a – or perhaps owing to it – the steadfast, methodical Hae-joon is good night’s sleep. beguiled by the beautiful and mysterious Chinese immigrant Seo-rae (Tang Wei). But a question hangs over their dangerous The death of immigration official Ki Do-soo sets Hae-joon liaison, which Hae-joon is duty-bound to answer: did her and Seo-rae on their collision course. Although his fall from husband fall or was he pushed? a mountain appears to be either accidental or a suicide, his wife seems oddly unaffected by his death. It quickly becomes Park credits a formative viewing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo apparent that her spouse was something of a brute. By contrast, with sparking his ambition to make films, and throughout his wife is an elegant, kind-hearted home helper for the elderly, his career he has displayed a penchant for the sort of whose clients adore her. Hae-joon is understandably bewitched morally complex, high-tension narratives that the Master of by this troubled, fascinating woman, and begins to tail her Suspense was similarly drawn to. Like Hitchcock, he’s also a in an attempt to ascertain if she had anything to do with her sucker for a swooning love story, particularly one that puts its husband’s demise. Seo-rae, flattered and amused by the stalwart characters through as much pain as it does pleasure. Think detective’s attention, indulges in his game of cat and mouse. 07 08 LEAD REVIEW Decision to Leave “While might lack the grandiose scale of Park’s most-lauded work, its intimacy is no less apparent.” While Hae-joon’s wife remains oblivious, living alone for most Her attraction to Hae-joon stems from his gentleness in of the week in the suburbs, and his headstrong young partner contrast to her sharp edges; he is the first man to treat her Soo-wan urges him to wrap things up, he chooses to linger, with kindness in quite some time. But the gulf between them unable to place his fascination with Seo-rae, or comprehend doesn’t just stem from the language barrier – Seo-rae has good the notion that she is capable of murder – even when there is a reason to hide parts of herself from him, and perhaps the sweet stack of evidence to the contrary. gumshoe is attracted to the idea of this beautiful woman as opposed to the reality. An insidious interplay between innocence and guilt is baked into the core of Decision to Leave, both in Seo-rae’s alleged While Decision to Leave might lack the grandiose scale of actions and Hae-joon’s wandering heart. Seo-rae doesn’t Park’s most-lauded work, its intimacy is no less apparent. just present an exciting new romantic prospect to him: This is a romance of missed connections and parallel lives; for the first time in weeks, he is able to sleep peacefully due a point underscored by the recurring use of Korean folk to her therapeutic influence. The dichotomy between polar singer Jung Hoon Hee’s 1967 song ‘Mist’, a Nancy Sinatra- opposites – like the sea and the mountains, beautifully shot esque ballad about a woman recalling a lost love. This by cinematographer Kim Ji-yong – is a recurring symbolic whimsy contrasts from the precision of every imposing theme. Take the relationship between dreams and reality: both mountain vista and the luxurious design of the apartments Hae-joon and Seo-rae fantasise about the potential of their where our would-be lovers meet. Such tensions lie at the romantic attraction, for a short time staying together in Hae- heart of this story: desire and duty; love and hatred; the joon’s Busan apartment where he cooks for Seo-rae while she mountains and the ocean. When torn between two opposing smokes in his kitchen. But the truth is ultimately inescapable, forces, sometimes the only power one has is to walk away. washed ashore with devastating consequences. HANNAH STRONG A signature of Park’s filmmaking is expertly realised and deeply shaded characters, whose perspective and motivations remain ANTICIPATION. compelling even from within the shades of grey morality. One of the hottest titles at in the The film’s script, written by Park and regular collaborator 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Jeong Seo-kyeong, is no exception, with the characters of Hae-joon and Seo-rae making for a classic (and tragic!) noir ENJOYMENT. pairing that Hitchcock himself would’ve been proud of. While A sumptuous romance that keeps its there’s an amusing irony in Park Hae-il – once the prime emotional cards close to its chest. susepct in Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder – playing an exhausted but dedicated detective, the film is very much Tang IN RETROSPECT. Wei’s to command. Seo-rae cuts a magnetic figure, clever This film is a force of nature. and calculating but romantic and dreamy at the same time. 09