‘Decision To Leave’ to represent South Korea at the Oscars in Best International Feature Film category

Park Chan-wook’s crime drama film Decision To Leave has been selected to represent South Korea in the Best International Feature Film category for the upcoming Oscars.

Deadline reported that the Korean Film Council announced its pick yesterday (August 11), sharing it took into consideration “workmanship and directing ability, the possibility of box office success in the North American market, and the promotion ability of overseas distributors”. As a result, the council agreed that Decision To Leave was “the most appropriate choice, and we expect the work to be well-received”.

Starring South Korean actor Park Hae-il (The King’s Letters) and Chinese star Tang Wei (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Decision To Leave is a slow-burn mystery romance about a police detective who gets dispatched to a scene of a man’s death. When he calls in the man’s wife to have her confirm his identity, he notices something peculiar about her and begins falling for her as he carries out a separate investigation into who she really is.

Decision To Leave first debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where director Park Chan-wook took home the Best Director prize. Park is well known for helming acclaimed Korean films including the blood-spattered Vengeance Trilogy – Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance – and The Handmaiden, as well as 2013 English psychological thriller film Stoker. 

Decision To Leave premiered in South Korea in June, and will open in US and UK cinemas on October 14. It will then begin to stream on the service MUBI.

In other Korean cinema news, Bong Joon-ho’s new movie Mickey7, starring Robert Pattinson and Steven Yeun, reportedly began filming in the UK earlier this month. The film, based on a novel of the same name by Edward Ashton, has also cast Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, and Naomi Ackie.