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 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.
Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
