redemption through investigation

His protagonists obsessively investigate dark truths (Se7en, Zodiac, Gone Girl) as a path to confronting their own moral culpability and psychological redemption.

His characters undergo harrowing investigations into trauma and grief (Hereditary, Midsommar) that force painful self-reckoning and transformation.

His films (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave) feature protagonists whose quests for truth and justice become spiritual journeys toward understanding guilt and absolution.