film

In the early moments of the film, there is a disturbing close-up shot of ants crawling over the dead climber’s eye. The ants are attracted to the decay, breaking them down further — suggesting a corruption of sight and seeing. There are echoes of Luis Buñuel’s An Andalusian Dog all over Park’s film, particularly in their similar obsession with eyes and the ideological parallels between sight and the visual ontology of cinema itself. […] On the surface, eyes represent openness, allowing living things to access and assess others — the proverbial “windows” to other souls. However, in Decision to Leave, Park instead suggests that eyes are equally capable of deceit through their ability to manipulate and surveil. *