No Other Choice

(어쩔수가없다, Eojjeolsugaeopda) 2025 | Directed by Park Chan-wook

Having enjoyed both Oldboy (2003) and The Handmaiden (2016), two of Park’s previous films, I had high hopes for No Other Choice. I was not disappointed, as the comedy, cinematography, and underlying message make No Other Choice into an unsettling, thought provoking, and at times uproariously funny comment on modern life.

Viewers are introduced to Man-su, a successful man in the paper industry, living an idyllic life with a beautiful house, family, dogs, cars, and every other status symbol imaginable. He is living his dream life, and this fact is stated loud and clear, with the entire family embracing and just soaking in the good life surrounding them. Of course, the audience knows that it won’t last, and sees this idyll, complete with bright colors all around, as something that is bound to fall apart at any moment.

He, along with many others at the company Solar Paper, are let go as a result of downsizing. Or axed, as Man-su states the Americans call it, as he’s attempting a speech to the benefit of himself and the other fired employees, a clear nod to the novel No Other Choice is based on, The Ax (1997), by Donald E. Westlake. From here, everything begins falling apart for Man-su. The therapy session where a bunch of newly unemployed men are coached in how to deal with their new situation is angst inducing, and finding a new job is a seemingly impossible struggle, both for him and the others. Man-su’s wife, Miri, takes a part-time job to support the family, they leave the dogs to Miri’s parents, sell the fancy cars, and contemplate selling the house and moving to a rental apartment. The good life, so utterly dependent on Man-su’s job, is no more.

How would one go about finding a job and saving one’s life in such a situation? For Man-su, there might be no other choice but murder. If he could kill a man with a job he’d be suitable for, a position would open up. And if he’d killed the more qualified candidates, he’d be bound to get an offer. The dark job hunt that follows is both tragic and funny, horrible in all its implications for both perpetrator and victims, full of bizarre moments, and draped in beautiful colors and landscapes.

No Other Choice is a bleak vision of the present and future. It lands in a time where anxiety about AI, corporate downsizing, and spiraling costs of living are worrisome realities for many. It asks the question what we would be prepared to do to keep our current lifestyles, if we were presented with no other choice. Are the jobs we are competing for even something we actually want to do, or is it just the chance at a more prestigious life we’re looking for?