Decision to Leave

Tang Wei and Park Hae il

Park Chan-Wook's Decision to Leave is a masterpiece of Hitchcockian suspense. A police detective falls for suspect in a homicide, then, history repeats itself. The detective imperils his marriage and his career, but is drawn to his suspect like a moth. 

Park's film presents the central split in people's lives between the attendant demands of objective reality and a self under the sway of unconscious impulses. Park pivots out of the usual police procedural tropes (mismatched partners, gruesome photos pinned to cork) to enter the exasperated mind of a man undone by passion. Once he meets the suspect, the detective can't keep his mind on the task at hand, even (or especially) when making love to his wife. 

One of the few films inspired by Vertigo worthy of  its legacy, Decision to Leave is as much a rebuke to the patriarchy as Hitchcock's film or The Handmaiden. Contrasted with a line-up of stupid cops, misogynistic thugs, and wife beaters, the detective, warts and all, can't help but come off sympathetically. Park Hae-il as the detective and Tang Wei as his nemesis and love are exemplary. The director also wangles superior performances out of his supporting cast, especially Kim Shin-Young and Seo Hyun Woo.