Q&A: Park Chan-wook on love, genre and ‘Decision to Leave’

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Long before Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” triumphed at the Oscars and “Squid Game” circled the globe, Park Chan-wook was astonishing worldwide audiences with his sumptuously stylistic, outrageously violent and devilishly elaborate vision of Korean cinema. His latest, “Decision to Leave,” is in some ways more restrained that Park’s previous films. It lacks the brutal violence of “Oldboy” or the sex of “The Handmaiden.” But it might be his most devastating. It’s a twisty noir entwined with a love story. Intricate and mischievous, “Decision to Leave” is yet another genre tapestry for the masterful Park to make an elegant plaything of. At the Cannes Film Festival in May, it won him best director. It opens in theaters Friday.