What would you do when pushed to the edge?
With your dignity, self-worth, and family’s welfare on the line, how far would you go to fulfil your role as the breadwinner?
Would you consider anything – even murder – if that’s what it took to prove you’re a provider?
With unapologetic brutality, laced heavily with dark humour and underpinned by poignant satire, acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook presents a wild and curious study of the modern salaryman’s plight in his latest offering, “No Other Choice”.
Based on Donald E Westlake’s novel “The Ax”, and later adapted by Costa-Gavras in 2005 as “Le Couperet”, Park’s “No Other Choice” is an appropriate, albeit farcical and dark, response to corporate downsizing and the loyal workers who end up its casualties.
The 139-minute film’s protagonist, superbly portrayed by “Squid Game’s” Front Man, Lee Byung-hun, is one such unfortunate victim.
This is peak Park – a master storyteller with a brilliantly twisted mind who knows exactly how to blend crime, thriller, suspense, satire, and black comedy into a seamless filmic formula.
The 62-year-old director, whose acclaimed works include “Oldboy”, “The Handmaiden”, and “Decision to Leave”, never shies away from taking the plot in directions you’d least expect – and then some.
Indeed, going into “No Other Choice”, you might think it’s about a man on a brutal killing spree (and you’d be forgiven for thinking so). But Park surprises you with the many layers and directions he explores.
Story-wise, the film follows Man-su (Lee), a middle-aged manager at a paper factory with a loving wife, two kids, and two Labradors. The family lives in Man-su’s old family home – a large house surrounded by tall trees.
But this picture of comfort and success (the daughter’s cello lessons, the wife’s tennis games, Man-su’s elaborate bonsai greenhouse) begins to crack when Man-su learns he’s being let go after 25 years of loyal service due to cost-cutting measures.
The family trims their lifestyle, but when Man-su risks losing his home after months of odd jobs and unemployment, he realises he has no other choice but to eliminate his competition – literally – to secure a position at another paper factory.
The film can feel draggy as Man-su fumbles through his first murder. His victim’s wife, a snake, and sheer bad timing constantly get in his way. At one point, you might even wonder if he’ll ever go through with it.
But that’s fine – because this sequence lets the audience truly understand Man-su’s character, while Park turns the tension into pitch-black comedy.
In one climactic scene between Man-su, his victim, and the wife, the veteran South Korean singer Cho Yong-pil’s funky “Red Dragonfly” becomes an unexpectedly perfect soundtrack to what can only be described as a comedy of errors.
This is achieved, all thanks to Lee, who anchors the film with characteristic finesse. This isn’t his first outing with Park – Lee starred in the director’s early film “Joint Security Area” back in 2000.
Unlike his stoic and reserved role in “Squid Game”, Lee brings a brokenness to Man-su that makes you both root for him and question him at the same time. There’s a casualness to his crime that’s oddly endearing.
Ultimately, beneath the absurd humour and blood-soaked satire lies a haunting truth – that Man-su’s quiet desperation mirrors the anxieties of countless modern-day workers.
So, when “No Other Choice” ends with what seems like a triumph for Man-su, it doubles as a grim reminder of how easily technology and AI can, and will, replace the common salaryman. After all, there is no other choice.
As of press time, ‘No Other Choice’ is screening in cinemas nationwide.