No Other Choice 어쩔수가없다 Review: Park Chan-Wook’s Satirical Dark Comedy About Killing the Competition Boasts Top-Notch Acting and Arresting Visuals, Despite Being Far From His Best

The elusive “best Park Chan-Wook movie since The Handmaiden” continues with No Other Choice, despite earning rave reviews after its world premiere debut at the Venice International Film Festival in August. Like his previous work, which also garnered near-universal acclaim, Park’s latest movie is rather overlong with several shortcomings that I will go into them later. But first, the plot. Based on Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 horror novel The Ax, which was made into a feature-film adaptation by Costa-Gavras twenty years ago, the story boasts an intriguing premise: How far would you go to secure a job that you want the most after over a year of unemployment?

We typically read or hear about the usual moves, from keep sending in the resume to building your network and upgrading your skillset. Not for Man-soo (Lee Byung-Hun), who has been dedicated to his job managing the workers at a paper company for over 20 years, only to be laid off due to the corporate downsizing from a foreign business takeover. It’s disheartening for a guy like him who’s been working hard all his life, but the cruel reality of capitalism always has its way to jeopardise one’s livelihood like a flick of a domino.

Earlier in No Other Choice, Park opens his movie with a sense of optimism — a happy family enjoying a nice, open-air BBQ meal outside their luxurious house’s well-manicured garden. That family in question is led by patriarch Man-soo, who has a beautiful wife named Mi-ri (Son Ye-Jin), along with her teenage son from her previous marriage and their younger cello-prodigy daughter. Not to mention their two family dogs.

Everything is simply pitch-perfect with the way Park sets up the opening scene, except for this odd one out. That would be the eels, which are given to him by his employer. Man-soo figures it’s a token of appreciation, even though the so-called gift of eels serves as a sneakily brutal metaphor that seals his fate.

Ironically, the fact that Man-soo works at a paper company feels like a double-edged sword. It’s the very industry which earns him a living, to the point he’s able to live comfortably and happily with his family. But on the flip side, life is as fragile as a piece of paper. It looks like a solid, coherent whole, but once it’s being torn or crumpled, everything’s falling apart.

That’s exactly what happens to Man-soo, despite he’s confident he can land a stable job within three months. Park addresses this expectation vs reality angle when it comes to job hunting is universally relevant, especially given today’s unstable job market, not only in South Korea but also around the world. We see Man-soo trying to get employed, only to be frustrated by a recurring false sense of hope. He’s about to lose his house, among other things, if things don’t improve. Here is where it gets interesting: The increasingly desperate Man-soo devises an unlikely plan by setting up a bogus paper company to attract his potential competitors, and from there, he will eliminate them one by one.

No Other Choice is positioned as a black comedy — something that is right in Park’s wheelhouse — but instead of giving us the pleasure of executing Man-soo’s absurd plan of literally killing his competition in a lurid manner, he does so in a strangely restrained way. Sure, there is plenty of blood and violence within its darkly comedic scenarios, but it’s relatively tame for the movie’s otherwise piercingly captivating premise. It makes me feel as if Park has somehow mellowed down in his approach, similar to what he did in Decision to Leave.

It still has its moments, notably Man-soo’s first murder attempt that revolves around the deafeningly loud music and a setback that makes the planned killing more complicated than it looks, resulting in the movie’s most cruelly funny sequence. Park has a knack for distinctly shooting his movie, with the help of Kim Woo-Hyung’s atmospheric cinematography. The arresting visuals are undeniable, from the gorgeous colour palette and the movie’s locations, to the ingenious use of transitions and dissolves, along with Park’s unique perspective on placing his camerawork.

The cast, particularly the principal actors, excel the most. This includes Lee Byung-Hun, who previously appeared in Park’s Joint Security Area and one of the Three… Extremes‘ anthology segments titled Cut get to let loose for a change. His performance alternates seamlessly from a desperate family man trying hard to get back on his feet to becoming a reluctant “killer” who’s prone to making mistakes, and at one point, turns delusional after suspecting his wife is cheating on him. It also helps that he is backed by solid supporting turns, notably Son Ye-Jin as Mi-ri. It’s kind of a pity that the thematically relevant story reflecting today’s working world, blended with Park’s black-comedy structure, doesn’t reach its fullest potential.