Decision to Leave (Korean film): Decent, but there are better K-films out there

I say this as someone that has seen quite a lot of Korean cinema for someone that is not Korean and doesn't speak Korean either. This films has good production value, a decent story, and the pacing moves along at a good enough rate. By many metrics it is a good film but my standards of Korean films have become so high since they have what I consider to be, some of the best films in the world considering the budget, that I believe this film will be viewed as boring by many who don't often watch Korean movies.

src

It's part cop film, part tragedy, and part murder/mystery. Overall though, it is just a rather strange love story but still, I liked it but just don't think it will appeal to mass audiences.

As with most Korean films, it can be a bit difficult to follow for westerners because the names, although unique and easily identifiable by Koreans, all kind of sound the same for us. That's not me being racist or xenophobic, it is just a fact.

The films follows detective Hae-Jun, who is mid-level in the force and pretty good at his job. He suffers from insomnia and works even when he doesn't need to, bringing his cases home with him where he toils over them well into the night. One of the people he is investigating for murder is an attractive Chinese immigrant named Seo-Rae who was married to a Korean much older than her, and her late husband fell from a mountain cliff in a suspicious manner.

src

Seo-Rae and the detective (you see, I already forgot his name) unsurprisingly become romantically involved with one another during the investigation and here is why the film is recognized as being a bit risque compared to other similar cop love stories that exist in Korea.

Hae-Jun is already married, and is rather happy in his marriage as well. However, he gives into temptation with Seo-Rae anyway. There is also the rather large conflict of interest seeing as how he is actually in charge of investigating her as a suspect for murder. Throughout the film we as the audience are left guessing whether or not Seo-Rae's emotions towards Hae-Jun are genuine, or if she is just being sweet to him in order to get him off her trail.

I'm not going to spoil anything beyond that and this is basically spelled out in the trailer anyway so it isn't a big deal that I did that here.

I would say that this film is a bit long as well as it clocks in at over 2 hours long. This is quite unusual for all movies and especially Korean ones that tend to stick to the 90 minute format even more so than US films.

Should I watch it?

I think that for people that are already fans of Korean cinema that this one can be a winner. It is directed by the same person that did Oldboy after all and in my mind, that is one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema that the world has ever known. On the other hand, I think that a lot of people, especially those that are not already fans of Korean films, that this will be a rather bad place to start if you are just beginning your journey into Korean cinema. Therefore, if you fall into the 2nd category, this is a good one to put on your list and perhaps just save it for later after you see the best that Korea has to offer.

If I were to grade this film I would give it a solid B. It is still much better than a vast majority of films that come out of the western world though.