☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
No Other Choice (2025) – C.-W. Park
I was very enamoured with Park Chan-wook’s previous
film, Decision to Leave (2022), a hazy film noir romance that felt like an ode
to Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Now his
new film takes a Donald Westlake novel (The Ax, previously adapted by
Costa-Gavras, to whom this film is dedicated) and turns it into a dark comedy
about our era of industrial transformation and the mass layoffs it is creating. Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) works for a large Korean
paper company that is taken over by an American corporation that promptly sacks
a chunk of its workforce including Man-su.
An expensive present from the company (an eel dinner) foreshadows the
pink slip. The film then follows Man-su
and his family, including his wife Miri (Son Ye-Jin) and two children, Si-one
and Ri-one, a possibly autistic cello prodigy and a typical teen getting himself
into trouble, as they cope with the disaster. The family struggles to make ends
meet (Miri goes to work as a dental assistant) and with the bank about to
foreclose on the family home, Man-su hatches a desperate plan to ensure that he
is the prime candidate for any job opening at other paper companies (there seem
to be quite a few). The film takes its
time as Man-su identifies his competition and builds up the courage to take
them out. Of course, it’s messy, and Man-su creates too many clues and loose
ends for the police to follow -- but director Park revels in the opportunity to
create eccentric characters, stage some magnificent shots in beautiful colour
(kudos to cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung), and basically let things get weird
and goofy. Lee Byung-hun holds it all together
with a charismatic performance (rightfully nominated for a Golden Globe). Another
highlight in Park’s already excellent oeuvre.
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