When Love is More Important Than Life
Decision to Leave by South-Korean director Park Chan-wook
SPOILER ALERT: This post reveals details about the plot of the movie.
I had to watch Decision To Leave twice to understand it fully, and I enjoyed it so much that I wouldn’t mind watching it a third time just to savor some of the scenes without having to focus so much on the plot. I love complex characters and stories that pose a moral question, and this movie has both. This is the plot, in a nutshell: South-Korean detective Jang Hae-jun falls in love with Song Seo-rae, a Chinese woman who is the main suspect in a case he is investigating. His feelings for this woman get in the way of his objectivity, and the death of the victim (Seo-rae’s husband) is ruled a suicide. As the relationship between the two deepens, Jang Hae-jun discovers new evidence against Song Seo-rae. Out of love, he urges her to destroy the evidence but, deeply ashamed of his actions, he ends the relationship and leaves the city where he worked to move to his wife’s town. Thirteen months later, he meets Song Seo-rae in the town’s market. She is now married to a shady investment broker, who is found dead in his swimming pool a few days later. Once again, Jang Hae-jun is called to investigate a case involving the woman he loves. I won’t spoil the end of the movie, but let’s just say that this is a true love story, however controversial, and the final scene is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking I have ever seen on the screen.
There’s a song that recurs in the movie and is also important for the development of the plot: “Fog” by Chung Hoon-hee. In an interview, South-Korean director Park Chan-wook explained that it was a song he knew from his youth and started listening to again when he felt homesick while working in London. The song is about love lost and never forgotten. Park Chan-wook discovered a cover by Song Chang-sik, a male singer he loves, and asked both singers to perform a new version of the song as a duet for the end of the movie. For me, this duet is a musical representation of the tragic love story and endless bond between the two characters.
As for the actors, I think they were all very well cast, from the main characters to the detectives who work with Jang Hae-jun to his wife. My favorite is Park Hae-il, the actor who plays Jang Hae-jun. His interpretation of a man in love, whose world is shattered and yet cannot stop loving the woman who is responsible for that destruction, is excellent. Look at his eyes when they share a few intimate moments, his expression when he confronts her after finding new evidence against her, his desperation in the final scene at the beach… just perfect!
I guess the moral of the story could be that feeling alive is more important than living a good life. Or, love is more important than life, just like the criminal Hong San-o wants to tell his girlfriend before jumping to his death: “I went through hell because of you. But without you, my life would be empty.”
A few more poignant quotes from the movie:
“If grief envelopes some like a crashing wave, there are some to whom it spreads slowly, like ink in water.”
“From the start, I knew we were of the same breed.”
“Don’t speak about our time that way.”
“You said I was dignified? Do you know where dignity comes from? From pride. I was a proud policeman. But… After going crazy for a woman, I ruined an investigation. Now I’m completely shattered.
“Why did you marry a man like that?”
“It was so I could make the decision to leave another man.”
“After leaving me, you never once slept soundly? Even if you forced your eyes shut, you kept thinking of me? Didn’t you feel this way too? That night you ran into me in the market, suddenly you felt alive again? At last.”
“The moment you said you loved me, your love ended. And the moment your love ended, my love began.”
