‘Decision to Leave’ Review: A Masterful, Dazzling Love Story Wrapped in a Mischievous Murder Mystery

variety.com:

Jessica Kiang Nobody does convoluted like Park Chan-wook. Far beyond the point that Theseus himself would have given up and turned to a pile of desiccated bones in some dead-end nook, the Korean master behind “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden” will be coolly sauntering through another of his immaculately intricate labyrinths, pausing very occasionally — with perhaps the slightest trace of irritation — to make sure the laggards in the back can keep up.

The process should be maddening, but instead, as his new Cannes competition title proves, it’s almost magical how his trail of elegant, glinting clues leads us out, blinking, into the light again.

After the world-conquering success of Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” and the small-screen domination of “Squid Game,” your new, sublimely accomplished Korean thriller obsession is here, and it is Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave.” Hae-joon (Park Hae-il, beautifully combining the classic noir archetypes of lovelorn patsy and dogged gumshoe) is an ace police detective.

The youngest officer ever to make Inspector in bustling Busan, he is handsome, respected and happily married to a pretty, witty wife (Lee Jung-hyun).