Film director Chan-wook Park (from left) and actors Tang Wei and Park Hae-il took pictures at a meeting held for domestic media at the KOFIC booth in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, southern France, where the 75th Cannes Film Festival was being held on the 22nd. is responding to News 1
As the 75th Cannes Film Festival is in its midst, director Chan-wook Park’s ‘Decision to break up’, which was invited to the competition section, has been praised by the media around the world and is emerging as a strong nominee for the Palme d’Or.
On the 24th (local time), Screen International, a film specialized media, revealed the ratings of the films that were screened in the competition section that had been released until the previous day, and announced that ‘Decision to Break Up’ received a rating of 3.2 (out of 4) from nine media outlets. With the highest score among the 12 films, American director James Gray’s ‘Armageddon Time’ (starring Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins) took the lead with a score of 2.8, while Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Io’ scored 2.7 points. The situation was followed.
In the competition section to which the 21st film was invited, there are still topical works such as ‘Tori and Lokita’ by the Belgian master brothers director Dardenne brothers and ‘The Broker’ by Hirokazu Koreeda with Korean actors, so the ‘decision to break up’ is among these works. It will be interesting to see what the results will be.
The media attending the local screenings are generally well-received. British Screen International gave it a perfect score of 4 stars, saying, “Director Chan-wook Park showed that it is possible to create a thriller that is very satisfying and has a high commercially viable potential without the extreme shock therapy shown in his early films.” The BBC evaluated ‘The Decision to Break Up’ may not be Park Chan-wook’s best film, but it was “a film that surpasses most other directors’ best films” and gave it four out of five stars.
The British daily The Guardian also gave it a perfect 4, comparing director Park Chan-wook to director Alfred Hitchcock, master of suspense and thriller films. “The tension and intrigue, the eye-catching emotional confrontation, the clever use of cell phone technology, the stylistic scenes with fantastic rooftop chases, the brilliantly crafted twists are very Hitchcockian, and not at all imitated.” It’s like a Hitchcock movie made by someone who’s never seen it.”
The possibility of winning the Best Actress award for the lead actress Tang Wei is increasing. The Guardian praised “Tang Wei is very good”, and the American film media Deadline also praised “The most valuable asset of a movie is the actresses, and among them, Tang Wei is very good.” Deadline also added, “There is a reason that director Lian Lian cast him in ‘Color World.’
Screen International’s Cannes Film Festival invitational star rating. The second from the bottom is the horoscope for ‘decision to be broken’. Screen International website
‘Decision to Break Up’ is the story of a homicide detective Hae-jun (Park Hae-il), who is in charge of a fatal accident, falling in love while investigating the deceased’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei). This is director Chan-wook Park’s fourth film to compete in the Cannes Film Festival.
There are also some negative reviews. Spanish film media ‘Caiman Cuadernos de Cine’ praised the film’s excellent cinematography and art, but said, “There are many points that are reminiscent of old film noir films such as John Huston, but there are too many and repetitive devices to attract attention.” “There is no narrative vibrancy other than the visual aspect. The images are so beautiful, but the film doesn’t move forward,” he pointed out.
Compared to the British and American or Asian media, the French media’s evaluation is rather shallow. Unlike Screen International, which collects and discloses the ratings of media from various countries around the world, French media ‘Le Film Franche’ collects and discloses the ratings of 15 French media, and ‘Decision to break up’ received a rating in the upper middle, not the top. French media selected ‘Armageddon Time’ and ‘Tchaikovsky’s Wife’ by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov as the best films. The French media Lumanite also gave the lowest score out of five grades for ‘decision to break up’. In a review of a writer different from the reviewer who gave the star rating, the media wrote, “It lacks something to completely captivate the audience, like the hallway fighting scene in Park’s movie ‘Oldboy’.”
French media ‘Le Film Franchet’ has compiled and released the ratings of 15 local media for the films screened in the Cannes Film Festival competition section. The second from the bottom is ‘decision to break up’. The yellow golden palm image is the highest point, and the round image is the lowest point. Film Franchet website
Despite some negative reviews, ‘Determination to Break Up’ was sold in 192 countries around the world, proving its high popularity. CJ ENM revealed this fact on the 24th and said, “It is an all-time high overseas sales performance that is close to the previous record for the most sales of a Korean movie, ‘Parasite’ (sold in 205 countries).”
Go Kyung-seok reporter kave@hankookilbo.com
Balance to see the world, Hankook Ilbo © Hankookilbo
