Reseñas de la crítica

Restraint and classicism have their appeal and might be a selling point for some. In contrast to Park's wilder works, however, "Decision to Leave" has just enough of a sense of familiarity to it that it generally lacks the stunning quality that defines his best work.

Decision to Leave is all the more impressive because it’s a film of restraint and nuance. It combines the suspense of classic Hitchcock with the longing of a Wong Kar-Wai love story, making it a cinematic dream come true.

Park expertly feeds us just enough information to keep us enthralled and guessing as we go down the rabbit hole. This is also one of the best directed films of the year, each shot composed for maximum effect. Its off-kilter compositions, close-ups and wide vistas of city and countryside are captivating but never distracting. Park may owe a debt to Vertigo, but he makes the genre his own.

Many viewers will find [Decision to Leave] a difficult film to engage with. It builds up in waves, the effect almost indiscernible until a rush of emotion breaks the surface. Underneath, there are layers and layers of mystery. Is it worth the effort? Suffice to say that it won’t just help you while away a couple of hours – your mind will keep gnawing away at it for weeks.

An impeccably crafted puzzle box of a film, Decision to Leave cements Park Chan-wook’s place in cinema as our modern master of suspense.

Much like its characters, [Decision to Leave] sets aside reason and prioritizes sensation... [The characters'] collision, their romance, and the tragedy that surrounds them no matter how much they try to escape it, makes for the kind of enrapturing storytelling worth obsessing over.

[Park] is at his playful best in Decision to Leave... [which] transforms a familiar scenario into a deeply poignant tale of forbidden love. In the process, Park refreshes tired tropes to craft a unique cinematic experience.

Although it’s a bit more stylistically subdued than some of Park’s previously films, Decision to Leave is one of those movies where the viewer can tell the person making it is having a lot of fun, and the feeling becomes delightfully infectious.

To call [Decision to Leave] merely "stylish" would be to vastly understate the point. Even the most expositional passages of this elegant, tricky murder mystery brim with quietly stunning craft—with compositions and juxtapositions that underscore its themes of observation and obfuscation.

Paced with a precise sort of languorousness, Decision to Leave may leave some audiences feeling wobbly, uncertain of where Park’s story is going or if it even intends to land anywhere close to a destination... But the ultimate ride is well worth any destabilization, especially given how much control Park exercises over every single frame of his work. This is meticulous, beautiful filmmaking that is rich in meaning and fat with detail. Surrender to Park’s smoky, dangerous romance – vengeance can wait.

Dodging obvious beats, [Decision to Leave] also denies us deep emotional engagement... In this quiet new place, unused to rushes and gushes of blood, Decision to Leave is revealed as a film of mists and tides, mountains and oceans, its protagonists swept away by an elemental Korean tale.

The enthralling, serpentine crime drama Decision to Leave may be less overtly erotic than [Park's] last picture, The Handmaiden, but in its slinkily seductive way there’s a kinship between the two. Both films share an illicit fascination with the darkest impulses of the human soul.