No Other Choice

To solve his problems, a former employee of a paper company (Lee Byung-hun) has no other choice but to turn to violence to eliminate those who stand in the way of his dream life. Park Chan-wook’s absurd and macabre comedy has surprises at every turn. 

“There is no other choice.” A sentence Yoo Man-su, a longtime employee of a paper company, husband to his wife Mi-ri and father of two amazing children, gets as the excuse and apology for being laid off. Because axing costs is the new modern way. Annoyed by hearing it too many times while watching the bills pile up, the bank repossessing his dream house, and others getting his dream job and dream life, Man-su realises that, indeed, there is no other choice and axes his life back from those who took it. Quite literally.

Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is a concerto of delightfully absurd and macabre humour, as we watch a clean-cut picket-fence house father defending his right to live his dream – and his meticulous plans coming to life in unexpected ways. Park (The Handmaiden, IFFR 2017) once again unleashes his signature sense of humour coming from well-pointed mis-en-scene, playful use of music and his cast. And let’s be fair, Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin, reunited since Park’s Joint Security Area, portray Man-su and Miri with enchanting gusto.

– kijA