In The
Mood For A Love
Story
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Two soulmates
cross paths in unusual circumstances,
and it's this forbidden language of love
— shaped by the investigative nature of
modern dating — that director Park
Chan-wook beautifully reinvents in
'Decision To Leave'.
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Cast:
Park Hae-il, Tang
Wei
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PARK CHAN-WOOK'S LATEST,
Decision to Leave, is about a star
detective who falls for an enigmatic murder
suspect. The Busan-based detective, Jang
Hae-jun (Park Hae-il), is in a reasonably
happy marriage. But his wife works in a
seaside town; they only meet on weekends.
The suspect, Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei), is a
Chinese expat and eldercare worker whose
abusive husband is found dead at the bottom
of a mountain he often climbed. She doesn’t
seem particularly fussed about the
‘tragedy’. It looks like an accident or, at
worst, a suicide. Hae-jun notices that she
has all the quirks of a quintessential femme
fatale — including a funny (Korean) accent.
Yet, he gravitates towards her like a fly
buzzing around a fresh corpse.
In other words, everything about the premise
screams for the Park Chan-wook treatment.
The twisted eroticism: They’re breaking the
rules, so perhaps their sex — desperate,
adventurous, risky — does the same. Maybe
Seo-rae reverses the power dynamic and toys
with the sensation of Hae-jun spying on her;
she spices up his stake-outs. The stylised
violence: Perhaps Hae-jun’s addiction to his
job — the gory crime scenes, the
psychological games, the unsolved cases that
haunt him — feeds their dark desire for one
another. Their edges fit, like shattered
shards of glass fusing to form an unlikely
puzzle.
But Decision to Leave is not that
film. On the contrary, it is surprisingly
quiet and tender. There is no torrid sex,
and barely any bloodshed. Its sensuality is
derived from a sense of familiarity and
solace, a bit like In the Mood for
Love reimagined as romantic noir.
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Blurr
is the kind of film that lives up to its
title — and not in a good way. Ajay
Bahl’s film is adapted from the 2010
thriller Julia's Eyes, but the
retelling is sorely uninventive, failing
to shed light on the three basic queries
of a suspenseful premise: how, what,
why. These are crucial shortcomings, for
in their absence, the film is not just
reduced to a rudimentary whodunit, it is
diminished to ineffective
storytelling.
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Critic:
Ishita
Sengupta
Stream on:
ZEE5
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Based on a
real-life incident, Venkatesh
(Vishal Jethwa) and Sujata (Kajol)
confound medical know-how. Venkatesh
is only expected to live for 16
years because he has Duchenne
muscular dystrophy, a degenerative
condition. Towards the end of his
life, the 24-year-old defies the
government and the law to donate his
organs before he passes away,
winning hearts and sparking a vital,
critical discourse.
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Rating:
2.5/5
Playing in:
Theatres
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Pavail Gulati
plays Abhay Dubey, who lives in the
slums of Mumbai with his bedridden
mother, a drunk brother, and his father,
an autorickshaw driver. Abhay decides to
go to college as soon as his Class 12
results come out, but he has always
known that formal education won't help
him live the luxurious life he wants.
Meanwhile, he finds the love of his
life, Manjari (Saiyami Kher).
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Rating:
3/5
Stream on:
SonyLIV
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An
impoverished woman is shocked to learn
one day that her 20-year-old son has
lost his life. A cop informs her that
the boy died after working as a manual
scavenger, and that he was under the
influence of alcohol. Unable to come to
terms with the news, the mother gets
assistance from a social worker and an
architect to take up the case in court.
But does she possess the will to see the
trial through?
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Rating:
3/5
Stream on:
SonyLIV
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The one
newsletter you need to decide what to
watch on any given day. Our editors pick
a show, movie, or theme for you from
everything that’s streaming on
OTT.
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Each week, our
editors pick one long-form, writerly
piece that they think is worthy of your
attention, and dice it into easily
digestible bits for you to mull
over.
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In which we
invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of
the moving image, to write a prose poem
dedicated to their poison of choice.
Expect to spend an hour on
this.
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