This Korean Crime Thriller Masterpiece Is A Must-Watch For Hulu Users

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"Decision to Leave" is now streaming on Hulu, so you've got an easy decision to watch ahead of you. The 2022 South Korean film, directed by Park Chan-Wook, combines romance and mystery. Distributed stateside by Mubi, "Decision to Leave" racked up impressive streaming viewership over there. Its addition to the Hulu library will likely (and should) expand that viewership even more.

In "Decision to Leave," Busan detective Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is investigating the death of a rock climber, Ki Doo-soo (Yoo Seung-mok). The dead man's wife, Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei), has a motive; she's a Chinese immigrant and Doo-soo, an immigration officer, essentially blackmailed her into marriage. Seo-rae has scars from physical abuse too. But her husband died by tumbling down an enormous rock, so surely it must've been a suicide or an accident, right? Hae-jun keeps looking into Seo-rae, and as he does so, he wants her to be guilty less and less.

Watching the film is to observe a master at work. Park is one of Korea's most renowned filmmakers, both domestically and, ever since 2003's "Oldboy," internationally. "Decision to Leave" isn't quite a Park Chan-wook revenge film like "Oldboy" is, but both films are about twisted love and a pair of lives intertwined into destruction. There's something effortless about "Decision to Leave," even in its most technically complex moments. The movie runs over two hours, and stretches of that can be leisurely and quiet, yet that time glides past you.

The list of the greatest Park Chan-wook films is not an easy one to make, but "Decision to Leave" needs to sit near the top. The devastating ending of the movie is all about moments that stick with you forever. As you witness one such moment for Hae-jun, you realize the film will never leave you just as Seo-rae will never leave him.

Spoilers for "Decision to Leave" follow from here.

The set-up of "Decision to Leave" is nothing new. As it begins, you think you've seen this movie before. Hae-jun will be the detective who should know better than to think with his d**k. Seo-rae will be the devious femme fatale who pretends to be in love with said clown and then casts him aside. But their characters and their relationship become more complex — and much sadder — than that.

Hae-jun is an adulterer, but Seo-rae doesn't just pull him in with her pretty face. He's an insomniac and workaholic, living miles away from his wife, Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun). They see each other once a week and, while they promise to have sex just as often, it's without passion — Seo-rae later tucking him in and helping him fall asleep feels more intimate. Jung-an seals their vow not with an expression of love but some facts about the medical benefits of sex. Hae-jun has no true life besides his work, so that makes him susceptible to being charmed by a suspect.

Seo-rae is manipulating Hae-jun, yes, but she admires his dignity and decency. You keep expecting the shoe to drop where she'll betray or discard him, but she doesn't. When they climb a mountain together, Seo-rae sneaks up behind Hae-jun; the movie wants you to suspect she'll push him over the edge like she did Doo-soo. Instead, she only hugs him.

When Hae-jun pieces together that Seo-rae did kill her husband, he breaks off their affair but still lets her go, saying she should dispose of the evidence. Doing so leaves him "shattered" because it's so against his nature as a detective. She doesn't try to blackmail Hae-jun over his complicity or chuckle at what a sucker he is. She feels guilty that she "ruined" a good man. The fact he's willing to stay shattered for her? Her heart opens and envelops Hae-jun. "The moment your love ended, my love began," she later tells him.

Park co-wrote "Decision to Leave" with his frequent collaborator Jeong Seo-kyeong — her writing has been credited for the complex female characters of Park's pictures. The double deception of Seo-rae, that she's a murderer playing innocent but does have a heart underneath that, absolutely fits with the feminism of Park and Jeong's other films, including "Lady Vengeance."

So yes, part of the subversion in "Decision to Leave" is that it tees you up to expect "Basic Instinct" or "Body Heat," when really it's less lurid, more sad. 

Guillermo del Toro effusively described "Decision to Leave" as "'Brief Encounter' by way of James M. Cain." For reference: Cain was the novelist responsible for affair-becomes-murder classics "Double Indemnity" and the "Postman Always Rings Twice." David Lean's "Brief Encounter," adapted from a play by Noël Coward, is a 1945 romance film about two strangers meeting at a train station and sharing a too-quick moment of passion. "Brief Encounter" also inspired other romance films like Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation."

I completely see how del Toro came up with that description, but for me, I can't escape comparing "Decision to Leave" to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." You've got the unwell detective (though Hae-jun has insomnia, not vertigo) falling in love with a woman from a distance. Hae-jun even trails Seo-rae as she drives in his own car, the same way Scottie (James Stewart) followed Madeleine (Kim Novak) around San Francisco. "Decision to Leave" also uses a time jump, just as "Vertigo" did; the first half ends as the central romance does, then the second half follows the couple reconnecting months later. Finally, at the conclusion of both pictures, the lovers are abruptly separated forever and the detective is forever denied resolution.

Park makes both Hae-jun and Seo-rae into voyeurs like so many Hitchcock characters before them. When Hae-jun spies on Seo-rae through his binoculars then dials her phone, he imagines himself in the room with her as they talk. In the second half, Seo-rae observes him from a distance as she prepares to meet him again. Their romance is at its most innocent when they stroll a Buddhist temple together. In this scene, Park includes a POV shot from Hae-jun's view as Seo-rae smiles back at him. You get to see her looking at you the way she looks at Hae-jun. After seeing that, you're as enthralled as him.

Yet, while "Decision to Leave" feels like a classical romance-noir, the details of the story are modern. Many of the procedural plot details rely on the characters' cell phones (a step counter app is a critical clue to Doo-soo's murder). Any filmmaker trying to crack the code of engaging texting scenes should study the ones in here, too.

In 2023, Robert Downey Jr. floated the idea of remaking "Vertigo." All I can ask is: What's the point of that? Not only because we have Hitchcock's "Vertigo," but because we also have "Decision to Leave."

"Decision to Leave" is streaming on Hulu and Mubi. It is also available on Blu-ray.