‘No Other Choice’ Review

Park Chan-wook’s filmography is often divisive in its uncomfortable mixture of violence and comedy, and this trend undoubtedly continues with ‘No Other Choice’.

Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) leads an idyllic life, with his loving wife Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin), his precocious children, and a highly respected career as an expert in the paper industry. When Yoo Man-su’s company is acquired by an American conglomerate, however, he finds himself out of a job and worried that his family will leave him in his disgrace. Months go by as Man-su interviews at company after company only to be rejected again and again. As Man-su’s severance pay dwindles, Mi-ri takes a part time job herself and demands the family commit to austerity, including re-homing their beloved dogs, cancelling Netflix, and putting Man-su’s childhood home up for sale.

Man-su refuses to let his dream life slip away any longer and commits to pulling himself up by his bootstraps and creating the job he wants so much. But in order to do so, he must get creative.

Violently so.

Park Chan-wook manages the tone in such a way that it’s persistently bizarre, and yet never feels out of control. The dark comedy runs the course of the film, including slapstick, fart jokes and cutting social commentary. But as the crime drama escalates, the results are heartbreaking and tragic, with Park taking his time to humanize every character unfortunate enough to enter Man-su’s ambitious crosshairs. Park could take the easy route of making Man-su an unambiguous hero, an underdog raging against an unjust capitalist machine, and yet Man-su’s victims aren’t capitalists, they are portrayed as equally downtrodden men cast aside by the very same system. By sympathizing with Man-su’s victims, ‘No Other Choice’ is much more complicated and interesting, and consequently will be much more alienating to certain audiences.

Despite his misdeeds, Man-su keeps our sympathy largely due to Lee Byung-hun’s marvelous performance. Equally game for comedic shrieks as he is for menacing stares, Lee carries the film through all of its tonal shifts, somehow keeping the drama grounded even as the absurdity mounts. Lee’s performance is matched by Son Ye-jin as his devoted wife, who delivers so many thoughts and ideas without dialogue, yet is more than willing to speak her mind when the occasion demands.

The screenplay is filled with clever twists and feints, setting up elements of backstory that could become Chekov’s guns in a more predictable film, but here serve more to enrich the story while also keeping the viewer off-balance as to where all of these characters will end up.

Park Chan-wook, with cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung, frames shots that are emotionally evocative, using focus in unique and absorbing ways such that movement can be detected equally in the background and foreground in poetic contrast. ‘No Other Choice’ also flows with a distinctive energy, with one image often dissolving slowly into the next, or perhaps a separate image being superimposed over another to heighten the emotional power of a given moment.

‘No Other Choice’ is a poignant, satirical take about how work defines us, and why we let it, made all the more topical given current economic anxieties around dwindling employment opportunities and the rise of AI. Despite this thematic weight, the film is entertaining throughout, with memorable thriller sequences that improbably manage to deliver comedy and suspense in equal measure. While the tonal whiplash will undoubtedly be off-putting for some viewers, this very unique mixture of genre makes the resulting film much more thought provoking and interesting, even at its most discomforting.

No Other Choice
Rated R for violence, language and some sexual content.
Running Time: 2 hours and 19 minutes

Director Park Chan-wook
Writers Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Lee Ja-hye
Stars Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won
Rating R
Running Time 139 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller