18 years after “Old Boy” and its Grand Prix, Park Chan-wook walked away from the last Cannes Film Festival with the director’s prize for “The Decision to Exit,” in theaters from Wednesday. Take a look at the career of this major director of Korean cinema.
He is one of the filmmakers, along with fellow filmmakers Kim Ji-woon ( I Met the Devil ) and Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho, who took part in the renaissance of Korean cinema nearly twenty years ago and allowed it to push itself beyond its borders. the borders of the peninsula, to the point of establishing itself as one of the most dynamic and stimulating industries in the global cinematic landscape. Park Chan-wook is back with Decision To Leave, a variation on a femme fatale in which an investigator succumbs to the charms of his prime suspect.
A difficult start
If he is now a major figure in Korean (and world) cinema, things didn’t start out well for him. Passionate about cinema from an early age, but still received a diploma in philosophy. The son of an architect, he intended a career as an art critic before turning to directing in 1992’s The Moon Is…Sun’s Dream, a gangster film set in Busan.
This first film was a bitter failure, and the aspiring filmmaker turned to film criticism in 1994. He published a collection of his articles before trying his hand at directing again in 1997 with Trio, a comic portrait of three outlaw characters. There he again faces and gives himself a last chance to break through as a director.
The first big popular success
Fortunately for him, the third attempt will be good. In 2000, the thriller JSA (Joint Security Area) attracted more than five million viewers in South Korea and remained one of the biggest successes at the national box office. The film, which tells the story of the investigation of a murder committed on the “Bridge of No Return” on the border between North and South Korea, is ambitious in its form and content. It is one of the very rare productions of the time that also directly evokes the relationship between the two territories.
Revenge Trilogy
2002 is a pivotal year for the filmmaker, who manages to bring a long-standing project to fruition: Empathy for Mr. Vengeance, the descent into hell of a man who kidnapped a little girl in the hope of treating his sister with money. Ransom.
The Old Boy (2004)
A year later, he continued the theme of revenge with a manga adaptation old boy Starring Choi Min-sik. Selected in competition at Cannes (the year Quentin Tarantino was president of the jury), the film won the Grand Prix and launched the director onto the international stage. The story of this kidnapped man who was imprisoned for 15 years and then released without any reason allowed Old Boy to quickly establish itself as a cult film.
After signing on for one segment of the 3 extreme triptych, in 2005 he completed his “revenge trilogy” with Lady Vengeance, which this time, as its title suggests, focused on a female character. A heroine accused of murdering a little boy is out for revenge after being released from prison. Violent work imbued with black humor that reveals all the talent of the filmmaker.
A bloody adaptation of Emile Zola
He tried his hand at a lighter register in 2007 with I Am Cyborg, a strange and melancholic love story between two patients in a psychiatric hospital. A film he describes himself “Breath of Fresh Air” Among his various projects, and which won him the Berlinale’s Aflerd Bauer Prize for Most Innovative Film.
In 2009, Thirst, This Is My Blood, hit our screens, a daring re-read Teresa Rakin by Emile Zola… with vampires! We follow the forbidden romance between a priest turned creature of the night and his friend’s wife. It’s the fourth time he’s been there with his favorite actor, Song Kang-ho. The feature film won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
Internationally sought after talent
Three years later, the Korean traveled to the USA for the first time with Stocker. He directs this family thriller, written by Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield of Prison Break), Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska. In 2016, he returned to his native Korea with Sulfur Mademoiselle, adapted A novel by the British writer Sarah Waters, at your fingertips
Although he left the Cannes Film Festival empty-handed, where the film was in official competition, the director returned to the Croisette the following year as a member of the jury, chaired by Pedro Almodovar and alongside Will Smith and Jessica Chastain. In 2018, Park Chan-wook takes on a new format with British spy mini-series The Little Drummer Girl starring Alexander Skarsgård, Florence Pugh and Michael Shannon.
Get back to basics
It’s back in French cinemas from June 27 decision to leave, a romantic thriller in which a detective falls in love with a widow he suspects of her husband’s murder. Lacking the shocking scenes that the director has become accustomed to, this film seems to celebrate the calmness of his style. It is called A “A film for adults. Instead of telling the story of mourning as a tragic event, I tried to awaken it with sophistication, elegance and humor in a way that would touch adults. »
Tang Wei, Park Chan-wook and Park Hae-il at a photocall for ‘Decision to Leave’ at the 75th Cannes International Film Festival on May 24, 2022.
Yet it is a return to the sources of Park Chan-wook, who here pays homage to the man who influenced him and pushed him into cinema: Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, while watching him break into a cold sweat at a student party, he discovers his vocation. The projection is all the more important because there he meets the one who will become his wife.
Similar to James Stewart’s obsession with the mysterious Kim Novak, Park Haley plays a conscientious Korean detective who begins to track down and observe the prime suspect in his case, a Chinese widow (Tang Wei) unfazed by the death of her husband. His shadowing turns into a game of seduction and their interrogation sessions become a mock trial.
If the decision to leave didn’t allow Park Chan-wook to win the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival, where the film was in official competition, this regular on the Croisette stage still walked away with the prize. “I wanted to make a film that could captivate and captivate the audience in a progressive and almost imperceptible way.”. successful bet.
The Decision To Leave trailer, now in cinemas:
Source: allocine
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