Decision To Leave / Heojil kyolshim (2022)

A detective investigating an accident in the mountains becomes obsessed with the victim's wife.

'Decision To Leave' is a police drama directed by the wonderful Chan-wook Park. Intense, multi-layered, the story is far from simple and is original and incredibly believable, all thanks to the emotional subtlety infused by the skillful director.

Director:  Park Chan-wook    

With: Park Hae-il, Tang Wei, Lee Jung-hyun, Go Kyung-pyo

Rating: 8.5/10

Only God Forgives (2013)

A son belonging to the criminal underworld in Bangkok is charged by his mother with the mission to avenge his brother's death.

An unusual film from a director who makes unusual films. With flawless cinematography in obsessive neon colors, Only God Forgives is a more complicated film than the subject matter suggests, tackling themes as old as life like Old Testament revenge and Oedipal complexes, all in an extremely fatalistic tone. Despite this fact, the film's execution does not make sense, the subject does not justify its approach, the characters are not at all relatable other than maybe at their symbolic level, with the only character that has somewhat positive traits being aware of his fate, powerless in claiming back his lost innocence. 

Directed by:  Nicolas Winding Refn  

With: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown

Rating: 5/10