This story about “Decision to Leave” and director Park Chan-wook first appeared in the International Film edition of TheWrap awards magazine.
Best known for his action films “Oldboy” and “Lady Vengeance” and the erotic short story “The Handmaiden,” Korean author Park Chan-wook is more low-key in this slow-paced story of a police detective who becomes obsessed with a woman. of which he suspects. to kill her husband. He did this interview through a translator.
What was the genesis of this story?
It starts from my high school days when I read the series of novels about Martin Beck (by Swedish authors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö). At first I wanted to adapt those novels into a movie. I then changed my mind and wanted to adapt a single chapter, but looking back at the story that was written from it, I realized that the chapter’s story is actually no longer present. I wanted to make a movie that asked the question, “What if Martin Beck fell for the suspect?” I also had a second source of inspiration, “The Mist”, a popular song in Korea that I liked. And one day I realized: “Why not combine these two separate stories?”
When you talk about combining the procedure and the love story, I think of the interrogation scene, which almost plays out like a first date.
That’s exactly what we set out to do: tell a story where police procedural and romance are one story. I especially want to expose the interrogation scene because when there is mostly a dialogue and conversation scene, it is a good marker to see the characteristics of the person directing the scene. For example, some directors would cross shots with two cameras, which I’m not saying is a bad thing. It’s just that you have to trust the actors and their performances more.
The other approach is to split up each line of dialogue and change the location or movement of the camera based on each line. I fall into that last field. In that scene, there is no dramatic action on the screen, but emotionally speaking there is dramatic action. I wanted to do a dialogue scene that was as dynamic as an action scene where people fight or a kissing scene that is erotic. So the important thing was not to lose the tension despite the sweetness of the conversation. It is a police procedure, but also a seduction between two people.
You’re making a sexy love story without sex, where the characters don’t even talk about their attraction.
You’re right that I wanted to make a sexy story without sex and a love story that didn’t say the words “I love you.” It really all comes down to performance, camera angle, and editing facial expressions when looking at the other person. The acting hides the emotions of the character. So when shooting, camera placement, shot size, distance to subject – the smallest difference in these creative decisions makes the biggest difference, as does the choice of whether this shot is one second longer. or even 10. frames longer.
Some directors have said that they set their movies in the 1970s or 1980s because, especially with mystery stories, they didn’t want to deal with modern technology. But you hug him.
Modern technology feels like a curse to someone who wants to write a mystery story. All the detective has to do is review phone records or view CCTV camera footage. And it’s the same in terms of production design. It would have been nice if we had a case file with a cool cover instead of an iPad. And this is the same in the case of romance. Writing a love letter in ink is different than just sending a text message.
So it’s great to set the story in the past, but I wanted to do a story about contemporary people. So I decided that if I can’t avoid technology, I want to actively incorporate it. The style of the whole movie is very classic, and our characters are also outdated. But that clashes with the use of modern technology, and I think it created a very interesting clash.
Read more from the International Film Edition here.
