THE race for the 95th Academy Awards has officially started. Park Chan-wook's thriller ‘Decision to Leave’ has been selected to represent South Korea in the Best International Feature category at the 95th Academy Awards taking place in March 2023.
Despite being heralded all over the world, this is a historic first for director Park Chan-wook after 30 years in the industry. ‘Decision to Leave’ originally debuted in Cannes and eventually bagged the Best Director award for Park Chan-wook.
This made him only the second Korean director in history to have won the award after Im Kwon-taek who was given the honour in 2002 for ‘Painted Fire’. The movie received a theatrical screening in Malaysia under GSC (Golden Screen Cinema) Cinemas.
The Korean Film Council announced their choice, noting that they took into consideration the “workmanship and directing ability, the possibility of box office success in the North American market and the promotion ability of overseas distributors.”
The selection committee “agreed that Decision to Leave is the most appropriate and we expect the work to be well-received.”
The movie stars Park Hae-il (Memories of Murder) and Tang Wei (Lust, Caution). Backed by CJ ENM, Decision to Leave was released in Korea on June 29 and has grossed $14.3 million (RM63.56 million) locally, making it the sixth biggest movie of the year so far.
The movie will open in the United States and the United Kingdom on October 14, before going on streaming platform Mubi.
Korea won its first Oscar with Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in 2020 and expectations are high for the movie to make a splash in the Western market and the festival circuit. – The Vibes, August 13, 2022
