Korean cinema dominates Cannes 2022 as Park Chan-wook takes home ‘Best Director’ award

At the recently concluded 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Korean cinema stole the spotlight, with director Park Chan-wook bagging the prestigious Best Director award at the ceremony for his erotic-thriller film, Decision to Leave. Apart from him, Song Kang-ho, a part of the Oscar-winning 2019 film Parasite, also scooped up the Best Actor award for Broker.

This victory made Park Chan-wook the second Korean director in cinema history to win the award after Im Kwon-taek, who was honored with the title in 2002 for his historical film, Chihwaseon.

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Park Chan-wook believes movie theaters will continue to decide the future of cinema

In his acceptance speech, he lauded the film industries across the globe for never losing confidence in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. He stated :

“Fans didn’t visit movie theatres, but it was the time that we were aware of the value of cinema. As we have hope and power to overcome this pandemic, I believe that the cineaste will keep theatres and cinemas for good."

The director also addressed the crowd in a press conference via Yonhap News Agency, where he touched upon the pandemic and how it affected the world of cinema but failed to steal the power of movie theaters.

“Our experience to entirely focus on a film and enjoy it along with many people at a movie theatre is out of comparison. Each work has its own platform. A film made for the big screen should be watched at theatres.”

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The inspiration behind Decision to Leave

The critically lauded film, starring Korean actor Park Hae-il and Chinese actress Tang Wei, tells the story of a detective investigating the suspicious circumstances around the death of a Chinese immigrant. While he initially suspects that the immigrant's widow has a hand in his untimely death and starts following her, he eventually falls in love with her.

Chan-wook said :

“The mysterious and seductive woman, who is subject to the man’s observation in the first half of the movie, leads the plot and moves to the centre of the story. That is the most important point that I want to tell in this movie."

During the press conference, Park Chan-wook explained what inspired him to make the erotic thriller film - the famous Swedish crime novels narrating the adventures of detective Martin Beck and, surprisingly, the Korean song Mist, which came out in 1967.

“I had the thought of making a crime film led by a considerate and polite detective (like Martin Beck) and a romance film with the old Korean song ‘Mist.' This movie is made from these two wishes of mine.”

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After its initial release at Cannes on May 23, 2022, the film will be released in South Korea on June 29, 2022.