Park Chanwook declared, “I’m not a fan of the noir genre,” and “Decision to Break Up” was influenced by a mystery novel
Park Chanwook, director of “Decided to Break Up,” said he is not a fan of the noir genre.
“Decision to Break Up” won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and is currently expected to be a strong candidate for next year’s Academy Awards.
“This may sound amazing, but I’m not the biggest fan of the noir genre,” he said in an interview with Film Stage on Tuesday.
“I’m not a movie buff. I don’t watch the same movie again. There is an attractive element in the noir genre, but in many noir films, the plot fails, feels too artificial, or relies too much on the cliche.”
“Of course, this is what I say except for the great Noir movie. Noir movies also sometimes feel more stylized. So I wasn’t very conscious of the noir genre. I was more influenced by detective stories such as Ed McVane’s series and the Swedish series with Detective Martin Beck,” he said.
Earlier, he said in an interview with IndieWire at the Toronto Film Festival, “The decision to break up begins with noir and ends with romance.”
“Most Noir films are too obsessed with creating an atmosphere and focusing on a dark atmosphere. They fail to bring out the multidimensional aspects of life,” he pointed out.
He said, “I’ve always thought I’ve made love stories. But at one point I realized that no one had said that about my movie. They even laugh when I say that and take it as a joke. So I thought about the reason. Perhaps violence and nudity are at the forefront of everything, I think. It was just too strong, too vivid. This time, I had to calm these things down to show something different.”
“Decision to Break Up” tells the story of Hae-han (Park Hae-il), a detective who investigated the accident on the mountain, meeting Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the wife of the deceased, and feeling suspicion and interest at the same time.
The New York Times reported, “The New York Times said, ‘Decision to Break Up’ dazzles the audience at once with director Park Chan-wook’s free imagination and beautiful mise-en-scene. And at the same time as I feel that I’m finally in a stable period, I shake my heart mercilessly and collapse my heart,” he said, praising the overwhelming mise-en-scene and intense afterglow of the movie.
