Park Chan Wook: Genius of Korean Cinema

Park Chan-wook is a master of movie making. And he's seemingly getting better with age. Leaving the sex and violence of previous hits such as Oldboy, JSA, and The Handmaiden behind him, Decision to Leave / 헤어질 결심 (2022) explores the relationship between a Korean man and a Chinese woman, completely incompatible, seemingly madly in love, and destined to destroy each other. These two roles are played expertly by Tang Wei and Park Hae-il. "The moment you said you loved me, your love ended. And the moment your love ended, my love began." The movie is a piece of art: a poem. It encourages you to watch it multiple times, with each viewing providing greater insight into the layers constructed: through sound, language, visuals, and mis-en-scene. I sat down with two Korean women, Jimin and Yunsuh, and a Chinese woman, Jessie, to explore this movie from a variety of perspectives: art, beauty, gender, love, and morality. Each of them provided views and insights I would never have found myself. And yet, it still feels like there is so much that went unsaid.   Discussion Outline  0:00 First Impressions 13:40 Park Chan-wook and Gender 18:46 Park Chan-wook's Style 25:45 Is Decision to Leave Romantic? 34:58 Asian Vibes: The Mountains and the Sea 43:06 Tang Wei 1:08:25 Poetry, Yeokbek, and McGuffins 1:19:30 The Ending of the Movie  1:38:50 Haejoon: The Male Lead 1:59:52 Park Chan Wook and the Oscars 2:08:00 A movie, a Book, a Song   Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard  ▶ Get in touch: [email protected] ▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873 ▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard ▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed ▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128 ▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE ▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/ ▶ Music: Rail Gun by Disorientalz