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Decision to Leave: A Deep Dive into Park Chan-wook’s Latest Thriller

Korean director Park Chan-wook’s‍ new film brings his usual effortlessly fluent, steely confidence and a type of storytelling momentum that can accommodate all kinds ⁤of digressions, set-pieces and the occasional trance-like submission to mysterious visions. It starts out like ‍an Ealing comedy-type caper then somehow morphs into something else: a portrait of⁢ family dysfunction, fragile masculinity and the breadwinner crisis, and the⁢ state of the nation itself. It is based⁤ on⁣ Donald E Westlake‘s satirical horror-thriller The ax from 1997, previously⁣ filmed in 2005 by Costa-Gavras, to whom this film is dedicated. It may not be ‍Park’s ‌masterpiece but it is the best film​ in the Venice competition ‌so far.

The scene is a perfect family home, where the man of the house,‍ You Man-su​ (played by Korean star Lee Byung-hun), is benignly presiding over a late-summer barbecue in the garden, grilling some eels⁣ that have‌ been given⁢ to him by the new American owners of the paper factory where he is employed. Adoringly looking on are his wife⁢ Miri (Son Ye-jin), her teen son‌ from a​ previous marriage, thier daughter (a cello prodigy), and their‌ two lovely Labradors. But those eels are in fact a heartless⁣ and misjudged part of a job payoff; the new US ‌masters ⁣are ​driving through brutal redundancies and Man-su is among them. He is​ devastated, but without the emotional ‌language to express or understand how profound this loss is to him. He is fanatically desperate to reclaim his manhood in the eyes of his wife, children ‌and pets by getting a new job in the paper industry within the three months before his‌ severance pay runs out.

But that is unfeasible, so ⁢a brilliant idea occurs to him. He sets up a phoney recruitment ad in a paper‍ industry‌ trade magazine,⁢ and with inspired ‌cunning, Man-su makes it clear that,⁢ as the head of a paper firm committed to the product, he will on principle⁢ accept ‌no online applications; thay have to be on paper via the post, thus leaving no digital trail for the crime he intends to carry out.‍ Using the personal information that these trusting applicants will send him, he will murder them all, thus creating a string of job vacancies in the cases of applicants who ⁤are in work, and, in the cases of the unemployed, a⁣ reduction in the‌ amount of competition.

When asked if he