The Korean film Decision to Leave has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Picture – Non-English Language category.
Yes, with the folks at the Golden Globes being as “woke” as most of the rest of Hollywood, this is what used to be called the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, that is the category Decision to Leave has been nominated in.
The other nominees for the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Non-English Language were announced on December 12th, and also include Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Argentina’s Argentina, 1985, Close a joint production from the Netherlands, France and Belgium, and India’s RRR.
The winner will be announced during the 2023 Golden Globes Awards ceremony, which will take place live on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023, at 8 p.m ET and will be the 80th time the event has taken place.
For the first time too, 103 international voters also voted on the nominees.
Korea’s Decision to Leave (aka 헤어질 결심 in Korea) is directed by Park Chan Wook (The Handmaiden and Life is But a Dream), and was written by Jung Seo Kyung (Little Women).
And, while it does seem to have captured the attention of international audiences, the film itself also seems to have moviegoers who are split in their reactions to it.
Some said the story was slow-moving and lacked something that would have made the movie feel “whole”.
Some also commented, while the cinematography was beautiful and the soundtrack wonderfully composed, the plot itself was quite thin. Making the 2 hour 19 minute movie hard to sit through.
Others, however, praised both the performances of Park Hae Il and Tang Wei specifically, while saying the film was masterfully directed.
Several said they felt the director really got inside the head of a woman, and so was able to superbly show how women really love.
Decision to Leave tells the story of detective Hae Joon (played by Park Hae Il) who starts investigating a death in a remote area on a mountain. He immediately suspects the deceased’s wife, Song Seo Rae (Tang Wei), but then also becomes fascinated by her.
Whatever your thoughts on Decision to Leave, and I cannot comment as I haven’t watched it yet, it will be interesting to see if Park Chan Wook can make the Golden Globes 2023 a hat trick for Korea.
After all, Korea’s Parasite took home the same well-deserved award in 2020 with Minari, another fabulous Korean film, doing the same thing the following year.
Will Golden Globe voters award a third Korean film the same award next year? Only time will tell, eh?
Although either way it is still wonderful to see Korean directors getting so much attention from the international community lately, isn’t it?