No Other ChoiceReview
The job market is rough right now. As economies contract, wages stagnate, and companies attempt the misguided pivot to AI, culling staff in the process, people are happy just to have a job they can hold onto. To be employed is to be lucky – we have so far been spared the scythe of redundancy, the blade whose cut leaves no mark but scars so deeply. How fortunate we must look to those on the receiving end.
“To fire, you say “to axe”,” says Man-Su, the protagonist of No Other Choice, to the American execs who have bought out the paper company where he works. The rest of his impassioned speech is ignored, the businessmen not even doing him the courtesy of hearing him out. It’s a stark portrait of modern industry: bought out by people who don’t even speak his language, who must hear his rhetoric through an interpreter and therefore have greater luxury not to hear him at all.
No Other Choice follows Man-Su, played by Lee Byung-hun in a witty, sometimes frenetic performance, as he navigates job loss and quite literally fights to return to the world he has known these twenty-five years as an engineer at a paper manufactory. We open on almost a parody of American suburban idyll, Man-Su grilling eel on the barbecue for his wife and two kids: Son Ye-jin as wife Miri, and Woo Seung Kim and So Yul Choi as Si-one and Ri-one, stepson and daughter, respectively. Things are looking hopeful; the company gifted him the eel as a thank-you for all the hard work he’s been doing over the years!
Naturally, Man-Su’s prospects take a nosedive. He’s fired by the company after the Americans buy it out (“You got the eel?” one co-worker asks almost apologetically); he gets a retail job, but loses that to go to an interview for a papermaking job, and flubs the interview. They have to rehome the family dogs (ri-two and si-two – they are very good dogs), and they even put the house up for sale – Man-Su’s childhood home, which he worked hard and saved to afford, and which he has converted into his dream home. And to top it all off, Man-Su has toothache.
All of this sets the stage for a series of desperate acts: in order to return to the industry he knows, Man-Su decides he’s going to kill the manager of another paper company. Quickly realising this in no way guarantees his success in attaining the role, he sets out to destroy his competition first.
No Other Choice is zany. At this point in the film it veers almost into slapstick, as Man-Su’s first murder is badly-planned and poorly-executed. He targets an unemployed drunk, Bummo (Lee Sung-Min, in an excellent, hilarious turn), who is more passionate about paper than he is about his wife – in fact, the only thing he might love more is his music, to which he has a whole room dedicated. This first kill is a large portion of the film and involves a comedy of errors, from misadventure with snakes to infidelity to fried chicken, and arguably it starts to drag. While it is amusing, Man-Su’s first stumbling footsteps into premeditated murder does begin to tire after the first couple of attempts, and I’ll admit to feeling a little relieved when Bummo finally bit it (that whole scene is brilliant, and I did enjoy some of the gags here).
But once we’re through the first murder the pace really picks up. Flush with success, Man-Su moves straight onto his next victim. The plot thickens here – Si-one’s own night-time escapades to steal some iPhones with his best friend bring the police to the door; some detectives come calling to let Man-Su know someone appears to be killing off former paper manufacturers; and there’s some stuff with Miri working for a handsome dentist in the meantime, and Miri wondering why Man-Su is out late every night and going to so many “job interviews”…
No Other Choice is genuinely delightful, despite its grim topic. Park Chan-wook captures the desperation of being unemployed in middle age and the hopelessness of job-hunting in the modern age. Lee Byung-hun is excellent, taut and anxious and frenetic as he repeats the eponymous mantra, “No Other Choice”. He’s supported by Son Ye-jin and Woo Seung Kim, who provide fantastic turns as his wife and son and who arguably have the meatier roles of the family. Which is not to say So Yul Choi has nothing to do: as Man-Su’s neurodivergent, cello prodigy daughter, she’s quirky but quiet, though the weight the family place on her to be “independent” in future is reinforced throughout the film.
They’re backed up by a solid cast – I might have felt impatient watching Bummo and his wife in the first half, but there’s no denying they’re entertaining thanks to strong performances by Lee Sung-min and Yeom Hye-ran – and it’s grimly hilarious to watch Man-Su unwillingly learn more about his victims before he kills them. And while it takes him time to really develop that killer instinct, it’s a fun journey and one that ultimately culminates in a peak that satisfies as much as it disturbs.
I really enjoyed No Other Choice. I loved the characters and the story was strong, and I feel it only missed out on Oscar noms through a lack of marketing, and probably also out of fears it was too similar to Parasite (which it wasn’t, though I understand the comparisons). And while I feel it starts to drag in the first act, it’s a problem it quickly moves past when it gets into the meat of the plot.
No Other Choice is in UK cinemas now