Park Chan-wook ("Stoker") justly won Best Director at Cannes this year for his mesmerizing romantic thriller, "Decision to Leave." What starts out as a typical detective drama, soon becomes an involving tale of amour fou as a police investigation shifts from the professional to the personal.
The story begins with the death of Ki Do-soo, who lies at the base of a mountain he climbed. (There is a fantastic shot, from the deceased's point of view, of an ant crawling on his face). Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), the Busan police force's youngest inspector, is assigned to investigate, and he has to determine if Do-soo fell, died by suicide or was murdered. There are DNA traces found under Do-soo's fingernails, which prompts Hae-joon to question the victim's enigmatic widow, Seo-rae (Tang Wei, of "Lust, Caution"), a Chinese woman whose Korean is "insufficient." At times, Seo-rae laughs when she has "no confidence" in Korean, a trait that actually charms Hae-joon.
