Thur March 9 — 7 pm

2 hr 18 min
PG
Mystery/Thriller

A language barrier lies at the heart of swoon-worthy Korean police procedural Decision To Leave. Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) is a polite Busan cop, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the Chinese wife of a dead businessman. Though words may falter, the attraction is palpable; eyes and bodies pick up the slack in a tantalizing ebb and flow between impulse and etiquette. Like the Walls of Jericho in Frank Capra classic It Happened One Night, barriers seem destined to come crashing down. But complicating matters, she’s also prime suspect.

Park’s tale of a married detective torn between infidelity and moral duty keeps the viewer off-balance at every turn. Decision to Leave follows the emotional trajectory of two characters: the wife of the deceased man, and the detective who becomes fascinated by her. Seo-rae, who lost her husband in a sudden accident, does not show any signs of grief or agitation. The police start to investigate her as a suspect, but she never loses her upright and imposing attitude, making the audience curious whether she might really be the culprit. She does not hesitate in her exchanges with detective Hae-joon, even though he suspects her. And despite her limited Korean skills, her unexpected expressions and answers stymie those who question her.

Meanwhile Hae-joon, from the moment he first sets eyes on Seo-rae, feels a subtle interest stirring in him even as his instincts as a detective tell him to suspect her.  A person who has never felt disturbance in the slightest, he begins to change in unexpected ways after meeting Seo-rae. Having often suffered from insomnia, he is finally able to sleep deeply. The subtle and tense feelings that emerge between these two people, which having begun as the relationship between a detective and a suspect cannot easily reveal its true nature, combined with the attractive characters will leave an unforgettable impression on the audience.