Decision to Leave ~ Am I Attracted to a Murderer?

“Decision to Leave” (aka “Resolution to Break Up”) is a 2022 Korean film, categorized as Police procedural, Crime, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and Suspense; streaming on Hulu.

SUMMARY: A married detective develops feelings for a woman he suspected of murdering her husband.

♦ She’s Killed Before

In “Decision to Leave”, Hae-Joon is a detective investigating the case of a man found dead on a mountain. It appears to be an unnatural death, and while everyone else wants to write it off as suicide or accidental, he’s not so sure the wife didn’t meticulously plan a murder. Seo-Rae is the wife, now widow, of the deceased man, and she is brought into the police station for questioning. She’s Chinese and uses a real-time language translator device to speak in her native tongue, and then it translates into Korean for the detective. Seo-Rae is very attractive. But is she also a “black widow”?

In most cases of “black widow” murders, the femme fatales usually killed for profit. In this case, Seo-Rae didn’t gain much financially. However, she is free of a husband who abused her. When they told her that her husband was dead, she didn’t exactly cry a river of tears. She told the detective that he wanted to go to the mountain, and she didn’t want to go. He got angry and assaulted her.

Seo-Rae even lifted her skirt and showed Hae-Joo the bruises on her very attractive thigh. He tried to call for a female officer to come into the room, but she didn’t pretend to be modest at all. She told him to go right ahead, get up close, and take photos for evidence.

The police had to release her because there was no evidence to prove a crime had been committed. Hae-Joo could not accept that and refused to stop investigating. He believed that if he surveilled Seo-Rae, she would do something to give herself away. Seo-Rae worked as a care assistant for the elderly, and all of the people she took care of loved her so much that they referred to her as their daughter.

After work, she usually went straight home and … didn’t do much at all. Ended her day by falling asleep after eating ice cream with the TV on. Not a very exciting life for a cold-blooded murderer. That’s what he wrote in his notes.

As he continued to investigate and learn more about the “suspect”, the “very attractive suspect”, he discovered that she had left her country because she had killed her mother. The woman who gives such tender care to the elderly that people say she’s like their daughter? She committed matricide? If she can kill her mother, surely she can murder her husband. That was Hae-Joo’s logic. Although when he confronted her about her mother, and she told him the entire story, he was conflicted and began to have doubts. However, a fellow detective told him, “Killing is like smoking. Only the first time is hard.”

Hae-Joo spent a lot of time surveilling Seo-Rae, and even though he is happily married – at least his wife thinks they’re happily married – he is drawn to this mysterious woman. Is he being drawn into the web of a black widow? Most people know that the black widow spider is infamous for its venom. BEWARE! It’s dangerous!

Main Characters:

• Seo-Rae (played by Tang Wei, “Wonderland”)
• Hae-Joon (played by Park Hae-Il, “Hansan: Rising Dragon”, “High Society”, “The Host”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.3 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.8 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 4 out of 5 stars
• RogerEbert.com: 3 out of 5 stars
• Google users shared a public rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as RogerEbert.com.

“Decision to Leave” is a noir movie that is heavily influenced by “Vertigo”, the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film about obsession and deception.

Other K-dramas Like Hitchcock Thrillers: (Psychological tension, mystery, and a touch of noir.)

• Forgotten (2017)
  Strangers from Hell (2019)
• Find Me in Your Memory (2020)
• Mouse (2021)

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Decision to Leave movie review (2022) | Roger Ebert

Decision to Leave (2022): What am I missing? : r/Koreanfilm | Reddit

A Labyrinth of Desire – ‘Decision to Leave’ Review | The New York Times

Movie Review: Decision to Leave | Pittsburgh Magazine

‘Decision to Leave’ Review: A Dazzling and Mischievous Murder Mystery | Variety

Decision to Leave review – Park Chan-wook at his playful, slinky best | Crime films | The Guardian

TRAILER/TEASER:

MUBI. (2022). DECISION TO LEAVE [Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmoy73lhs-s.

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