One of the foreign films that got Oscar buzz months before it came out in theaters around the world was Decision to Leave.
The Korean movie starts with a scary mystery about a widowed woman and a detective who is in charge of the case but is caught off guard by a suspect who looks innocent and helpless. But this isn’t Low Instinct, and it’s not a story where sex is used to hide what’s really going on. Instead, it’s a smarter story where we never know what’s true.
Read More: JoinPD Learning Tips
Everything starts on a mountain in South Korea. From there, the story moves through a city full of secrets. The movie also has beautiful images, bright colors, and interesting details. One scene will make you want to go to Korea just to eat sushi. All of these things help build the world of the main characters and let us see the story from the point of view of a man who doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into.
Read Also: Disney Plus January 2023 Schedule
This story is interesting because you don’t know who to trust, and all of the characters make you want to follow them and learn more about them. The best part is that everything is told in a different way. The story is told in a way that makes it seem like it could be true.
Why should you see Decision to Leave and not the Korean movie that’s up for an Oscar?
It is the New from a Master of Korean Cinema
The legendary Park Chan-wook wrote and directed Decision to Leave, which comes out in theaters on January 12. He is best known for movies like Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Thirst, and this one has many of his trademarks, like mystery, intrigue, characters with secrets, and disturbing situations that feel real.
Also Read: Kakegurui Season 3 Coming?
The movie is a work of art, but it doesn’t try to be too fancy. Instead, it tells a story that gets better and better until it comes to a surprising and sad ending.
The History
A man is found dead on a mountain in South Korea. This is where everything starts. At first, the police think it might have been a suicide, but soon they start to think that might not be the case. So, a detective has to talk to the victim’s widow.
That interview ends up changing his life in ways he didn’t expect, drawing him deeper and deeper into the life of the mysterious woman. She seems innocent and charming, which makes the detective doubt his own instincts and feel more and more trapped. in his spell, which makes it harder for him to find the answers he’s looking for.
It’s like reading a Murakami book, but with a much more disturbing tone and a tragic ending that shows that justice doesn’t always exist in the real world.
Your Award Nominations
The movie has already been nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes in 2023. It also won seven awards at the Blue Dragon Awards and has been nominated for a total of 80 awards and festivals around the world.
Also, this is one of the top choices for the Oscars in 2023. It is thought that it could be nominated for best foreign film, for its director, and maybe even for the two main characters.
A Perfect Cast
The cast of The Decision to Leave is led by two of the best actors in Korean cinema. Park Hae-il, who plays detective Jang Hae-Joon, has been in movies like Memories of Murder, The Host, and War of the Arrows.
The “femme fatale” is about Tang Wei, who is known for her roles in Blackhat and Lust, Caution, but in a different way. One of the main characters in the Dr. Brain series, which is a great sci-fi horror story, Teo Yoo also shows up.
A Mystery Full of Twists
Everything in this story starts with a murder, but nothing is what it seems to be. There is a clear victim, but there is also a woman who is hiding a lot, a detective who is obsessed with the case, and a series of events that make the detective realize he can’t trust anyone.
The truth comes out slowly, so you can enjoy it, but new questions come up along the way. This leads to the main characters meeting again and again, which leads to a very surprising and a little scary ending, where everything you thought you knew is turned upside down.
