LWLies 95: The Deci­sion to Leave issue – Out now!

Apolo­gies for kick­ing things off on a mor­bid note, but the South Kore­an direc­tor Park Chan-wook will like­ly go to his grave being remem­bered for the image of a man scoff­ing down a live squid in his 2002 film Old­boy. Either that, or scenes of men being smacked over the head with a claw ham­mer which occur slight­ly lat­er on in that same film. That’s not to say that Park hasn’t made any­thing worth­while since that glo­ri­ous, turn-of-the-cen­tu­ry aria to vio­lent revenge, it’s more that he’s tamped down his streak of gaudy sen­sa­tion­al­ism to focus more on the impact and emo­tion of the films themselves.

His brand as a film­mak­er became attached to his fond­ness for explor­ing the mechan­ics of revenge across a tril­o­gy of films, but more recent­ly, he has turned to mak­ing cool, dark and men­ac­ing stud­ies of Alfred Hitch­cock, with Stok­er (Shad­ow of a Doubt), The Hand­maid­en (Noto­ri­ous) and his brand new one, Deci­sion to Leave, which is clear­ly inspired by the cin­e­mat­ic vor­tex that is 1958’s Ver­ti­go. The new issue of LWLies offers up an ode to this slip­pery neo-noir in which a sim­ple detec­tive sto­ry mutates into some­thing much more com­plex and cere­bral when clean-cut cop (Park Jae-il’s Hae-jun) falls for his prime sus­pect (Tang Wei’s Seo-rae).

In the issue, Park talks about his dis­taste for genre demar­ca­tion, and the fact that he wants to make films that tran­scend these sim­ple tags. With Deci­sion to Leave (out in UK cin­e­mas on 21 Octo­ber), the argu­ment that he’s mel­lowed as a film­mak­er doesn’t hold water, as even though this is a more stud­ied and qui­et film than his pre­vi­ous rip-roar­ing ram­pages, it still touch­es on big themes and rad­i­cal ideas. With its mod­ern noir trap­pings, we decid­ed to make this issue by tak­ing a styl­is­tic cue from the films that Park clear­ly loves so much: those swoon­ing roman­tic detec­tive tales from clas­sic-era Hol­ly­wood, those films where fiery love affairs are doomed by trag­ic circumstances.

On the cover

For this issue we ush­ered in the ser­vices of illus­tra­tor Michael Dun­babin to cre­ate a por­trait of the Chi­nese actor Tang Wei which offers a mod­ern riff on a selec­tion of clas­sic noir film posters. Oth­er amaz­ing illus­tra­tion work is fea­tured in this issue from Ben Giles, Jen Yoon, Stéphanie Sergeant, Julia Plath, Ben Turn­er and Huan­Huan Wang.

In this issue

Lead Review: Deci­sion to Leave

Han­nah Strong grap­ples with the nerve-rat­tling melo­dra­ma of Park Chan-wook’s stun­ning latest.

Shad­ows and Fog

Iana Mur­ray talks to the enig­mat­ic Kore­an film­mak­er Park Chan-wook about the pre­ci­sion required to make a film like Deci­sion to Leave.

Ani­mal Instinct

Actor Tang Wei on her extra­or­di­nary, mul­ti­fac­eted cen­tral per­for­mance in Park Chan-wook’s new film.

A Dark Turn

Kore­an lead­ing man Park Hae-il on why he rep­re­sents a new kind of char­ac­ter for Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook: A Space Odyssey

A dossier of five essays explor­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of rooms and inte­ri­or spaces in the cin­e­ma of Park Chan-wook, by David Jenk­ins, Josh Slater-Williams, Saf­fron Maeve, Lil­lian Craw­ford, Leila Latif.

The Bal­lad of Scot­tie and Madeleine

Mark Asch and Sophie Monks Kauf­man enter into a dia­logue on the inter­pre­tive vor­tex that is Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

Ten Green Bottles

Jake Cole cel­e­brates anoth­er – and very dif­fer­ent – Kore­an mae­stro, the mak­er of acer­bic, tip­sy rela­tion­ship minia­tures, Hong Sang-soo.

Threads #23: The Plaster

Christi­na New­land pulls off the cin­e­mat­ic plas­ter to see what’s left underneath.

In the back section

It’s Such a Beau­ti­ful Day at 10

Sophie Monks Kauf­man engages in a lengthy (and poignant and hilar­i­ous) email exchange with the stop-frame ani­ma­tor Don Hertzfeldt on the occa­sion of the tenth birth­day of his sole fea­ture work, It’s Such a Beau­ti­ful Day.

Peter Strick­land

Anton Bitel chats to the Brit cin­e­ma icon­o­clast about his new film Flux Gourmet, a neu­rot­ic splat­ter com­e­dy set in the world of son­ic catering.

Lena Dun­ham

Emma Fras­er chats to the Amer­i­can poly­math on the occa­sion of her hilar­i­ous and heart­felt new direc­to­r­i­al work, Cather­ine Called Birdy.

Gina Prince-Bythe­wood

Rōgan Gra­ham talks to the film­mak­er whose new tilt towards epic action sagas has result­ed in The Woman King.

Owen Kline

David Jenk­ins hears about squir­rel music and shut­tered NY com­ic stores from the loqua­cious direc­tor of Fun­ny Pages.

Babak Anvari

Kather­ine McLaugh­lin meets the British-Iran­ian genre mae­stro to dis­cuss his Hitch­cock­ian lates, I Came By.

Kog­o­na­da

Ella Kemp talks to video essay­ist-turned-writer/di­rec­tor Kog­o­na­da about his gen­tle sci-fi para­ble, After Yang.

Meet the Author: Philip­pa Snow

We meet the acer­bic jour­nal­ist and essay­ist to dis­cuss her debut book whose title speaks for itself: ​‘Which as You Know Means Vio­lence: On Self-Injury as Art and Entertainment’.

In review

Hong Sang-soo’s In Front of Your Face
David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future
Han­na Bergholm’s Hatch­ing
Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet
George Miller’s 3000 Years of Long­ing
Alli Haapasalo’s Girls Girls Girls
Hali­na Rejin’s Bod­ies Bod­ies Bod­ies
Owen Kline’s Fun­ny Pages
John Michael McDonagh’s The For­giv­en
Babak Anvari’s I Came By
Aga Woszczynska’s Silent Land
Claire Denis’ Both Sides of the Blade
Joana Pimen­ta and Adir­ley Queirós’ Dry Ground Burn­ing
Patri­cio Guzman’s The Cordillera of Dreams
Malachi Smyth’s The Score
Edwin’s Vengeance is Mine, All Oth­ers Pay Cash
Zhang Yimou’s One Sec­ond
Kogonada’s After Yang

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

LWLies 95 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.