Oscars 2023: Why Decision to Leave might go the Parasite way and clean-sweep Academy Awards

An insomniac detective who camps outside a suspect’s house and stalks her as she eats ice-cream for dinner and smokes cigarettes afterwards. A murder suspect who is an immigrant from China and wishes to reclaim the mountain her maternal grandfather, the leader of the Korean Liberation Army, left in her name. The two are entangled in a web full of deceit, Fentanyl pills, destroyed smartphones and synchronized breathing patterns. Park Chan-wook’s directorial Decision to Leave which won him the prestigious Best Director award at 2022 Cannes Film Festival, is being touted as a frontrunner to win an Academy award in Best International Feature Film category. According to Oscar predictions released by Variety, the romantic mystery is among top 5 films most likely to be nominated in this category, much ahead of India’s official entry to Oscars — Pan Nalin’s Chhello Show. The similarities between Decision to Leave and Parasite go beyond their country of origin and setting. Both films produce a sharp critique of Korean society — the rich-poor divide, social mobility and the rich.

The Class Divide in Decision to Leave

Parasite is a sharp critique of capitalism which puts people of different classes against each other. In Parasite, the rich-poor divide occupies the center stage and is more text than subtext. It is a central theme in the film. A family from lower strata of Korean society lives a parasitic life by tricking a rich family into hiring them as help. Decision to Leave is different from Parasite because on the surface, it operates like a romance-mystery. Still, it critiques the class hierarchy and critiques capitalism in a subtle way. For instance, when Seo-rae is climbing the mountain with Hae-jun, she tells him — ‘a man like you will never date a girl like me. There has to be murder involved for you to even look’. The statement exposes the bitter truth about Seo-rae and Hae-ju’s relationship. Being an immigrant woman from China surviving on a shoestring budget and working as a nurse, Seo-rae would never get to pursue a romantic relationship with Hae-ju, an upper-class detective who works with the police and has a respectable job.

When the two go on a date at a Buddhist temple, Seo-rae tells Hae-ju that she wishes to date a man with ‘class’ — being an immigrant from China who came to South Korea on a boat and managed to survive only because she married the corrupt immigration officer, Seo-rae yearns for a man like Hae-ju who would love her unconditionally and also give her the safety and security she craves. A major reason why Seo and Hae don’t trust each other is the class divide between the two. Even when Hae-ju is in love with Seo-rae, he cannot let go of his detective instincts. He is always second-guessing Seo-rae’s intentions and questioning if she really loves him — this is apparent when he is standing at the edge of the mountain and Seo-rae embraces his back. Hae-ju, for a second, believed that she wanted to throw him off the cliff.

Through Decision to Leave, director Park Chan-wook shows how love, which is often believed to transcend the boundaries of class, culture and social divide, is still dependent on these very divides for its survival. It doesn’t matter if Seo-rae and Hae-ju are madly in love with each other — so much so, that their breathing patterns are synchronized. It doesn’t matter that Seo-rae killed two people to get close to Hae-ju and that Hae-ju is unable to sleep and is severely depressed since he separated from Seo-rae. When the two meet, their love doesn’t blossom still. Both of them feel alive but only momentarily. Soon, they are back to playing cat and mouse as detective and suspect. As Seo-rae puts it, when Hae-ju’s love ends, her love begins. While Parasite addressed the class divide and social mobility upfront, Decision to Leave does it subtly, albeit effectively.

Decoding The Visual Imagery in Decision to Leave

The imagery in Parasite is used to underscore the rich and poor divide. The staircase in the Park household, the strategically placed semi-basement flat of the Kim family (which is flooded during rains) accentuates the dramatic and social irony in Parasite. Decision to Leave is no different. The recurring imagery of the mountain and the cliff foreshadows that Hae-ju will have the same fate as Ki. While Ki died by falling from the cliff, Hae-ju dies a spiritual death at the beach after discovering Seo-rae is missing (and therefore, dead). The film also deserves praise for showing romance and eroticism without nudity. The sexual undertones are accentuated through perfume droplets on a bandaid, a testosterone-fueled fist fight in a dark alley and gourmet Sushi meals as opposed to close-up shots of nude bodies and graphic love-making scenes. The recurring imagery of destroyed smartphones in both cases shows the fractured psyche of the couple who are madly in love with each other but cannot stop playing detective-suspect.

All in all, both Parasite and Decision to Leave critique the Korean society and class hierarchies while also satirizing the rich. Both films are from the heart of Seoul. The world was able to overcome the ‘one inch-tall barrier of subtitles’ in 2020 when Parasite won Best Picture at Oscars 2020. Will Decision to Leave have the same fate? Only time will tell.

Decision to Leave is streaming on MUBI.

Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75. 

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