Expecting Growing Interest in Local Experts ahead of the 95th Academy Film Awards

Director Park Chanwook's movie, Decision to Leave, is on the list of the ‘Best Movies of 2022,’ introduced in the New York Times (NYT) on December 6. NYT’s chief film critics Manohla Dargies and Anthony Oliver Scott selected the top 10 most impressive movies of this year in total, and Decision to Leave was introduced as one of them.

The article introduced Decision to Leave as ‘One of the divesting pleases of this labyrinthine movie.’ Comparing the film to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo, which features a private detective and a heroine involved in a crime, the critics said, “Decision to Leave unfolds and settles into its own distinctively kinked groove, the movie’s emotional focus progressively shifts from the obsessed lover to the object of his relentless, uncomprehending gaze, and Park’s clever homage turns into a poignant rejoinder,” having a high regard for the originality of the film. 

Decision to Leave tells the story of Haejun (Park Haeil), a detective who investigates the accident in the mountain, when he meets Seorae (Tang Wei), the wife of the deceased, and has a suspicion about her but falls for the suspect at the same time. 

Director Park Chanwook won the Best Director Award at the 75th Festival de Cannes. The film was also selected as a Korean film entry for the 95th Academy Awards, regarded as a strong candidate for the Best International Feature Film section with the other non-English films. Director Bong Joonho's PARASITE was also included in The New York Times’ 10 best movies of 2019 before winning the Oscars for the first time in Korean films in 2020. The New York Times' evaluation is expected to serve as a factor that raises the interest of local experts ahead of the 95th U.S. Academy Film Awards to be held early next year.