Director of Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and most recently Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook is back with a new satirical thriller that depicts the struggles of a recently laid-off paper mill manager attempting to navigate a ruthless job market.
No Other Choice could not have come at a more apt time, with living costs higher than ever and unemployment rates continuing to rise as job vacancies seemingly decrease by the day. As a recent university graduate myself, I could tell you all about the difficulties of breaking into any industry and shaping a career for yourself as a young person. However, as this movie shows us, it isn’t just the youth who are struggling, and no matter how hard you’ve worked, or for how long, the world in its current state has sympathy for nobody.
We see this through the eyes of the film’s protagonist, Yoo Man-soo, who is wonderfully portrayed by South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun. Man-soo has devoted 25 years of service to his company, remaining loyal and giving his best every day - carving out a life that he’s worked extremely hard to achieve and takes great pride in. Of course, this means nothing to the new American investors who take it upon themselves to reshape the company’s infrastructure as they see fit. Man-soo, despite his years of service, sees himself placed firmly on the chopping block, putting both his career and the life that he’s built for himself in danger of coming to an abrupt close.
Now faced with one of the most challenging and draining job markets in history - with too many applicants for too few jobs - Man-soo is forced to get a little creative in order to separate himself from the pack. Coming to the horrific conclusion that if he isn’t going to be the standout applicant, he might just have to be the only applicant if he is to stand a chance in this economy.
It’s here that Park Chan-wook’s comedic prowess comes into effect, with the bumbling paper mill manager Man-soo serving as just about the worst hit man we’ve ever seen on screen, a good man at heart who lacks the killer instinct required to do what he deems necessary. Forced into action due to unfair treatment from a system that didn’t afford him the respect he deserved, staring down the barrel of defeat, left, in his mind, with no other choice but to take out the competition.
Of course, there’s always an alternative - a change of career would not have been the worst option - but if that were the case, we wouldn’t have a movie. Nevertheless, leaning into the satirical in this way makes for one of the most entertaining rides you’ll embark on all year, filled with constant laughs and moments so absurd that you can hardly believe what you’re seeing. This cartoonish humour, however, does at times become a little overbearing, contradicting the blood-soaked thriller elements of the film and taking some of the bite out of what the story really has to say. That said, the situation at hand is so ridiculous that if we don’t laugh, we might just cry, and perhaps that’s exactly the ideology Park felt was necessary in order to provide some light at the end of the tunnel.
It should come as no surprise that the camera work in No Other Choice is amongst the finest we’ve seen all decade, with Park Chan-wook once again demonstrating why he is discussed in the same breath as some of the very best filmmakers to ever grace the medium. Park’s direction is perfectly matched by Kim Woo-hyung’s cinematography, which refuses to leave any detail imperfect - every frame justifying its existence through what it captures. Together, the two crafted a gorgeously colourful 139-minute journey, with editing from Kim Sang-bum and Kim Ho-bin ensuring the ride remains a smooth one, punctuated by breathtaking transitions that are every bit as jaw-dropping as Park’s camera placements.
The performances across the board are excellent, with Lee Byung-hun in particular the standout. His transition from cool, calm, and collected family man to slapstick assassin on the brink is a joy to watch, perfectly capturing the desperation and declining mental state that often accompanies job searching in the modern day.
Despite feeling like perhaps the definitive story to encapsulate 2025, No Other Choice is actually an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel, The Ax - a story that Westlake was inspired to begin writing after speaking with a group of friends about their experiences of being made redundant. Park Chan-wook’s take on the tale wouldn’t be the first to make it to the big screen either, with Costa-Gavras’ The Axe hitting theatres some 20 years ago. It’s a damning indictment of the state of the world that a story such as this has remained so relevant across three separate decades, resonating with American, French, and now South Korean creatives alike.
In a year that already includes Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, No Other Choice is yet another that holds a mirror up to a world that no longer values loyalty and sees humanity as expendable - reminding us of the extreme lengths we go to, not to live a life of lavish and riches, but simply to survive. A message delivered by Park Chan-wook with his signature stylistic flair, finding humour in even the bleakest corners of life in the 21st century - a film that dares to laugh in the face of struggle, whilst quietly begging the question: it can’t go on like this, can it? Well, as it happens, Park seems to share the same sentiment as former Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Mick McCarthy, who, I'm afraid, believes that, in fact, it can.