US EditionNo Other Choice Review: Park Chan-Wook's Killer Comedy Is More than Paper Thin
The film portrays a man’s descent into violence after losing a 25-year job amid corporate downsizing, highlighting South Korea’s economic struggles and family pressures.
- At the 2025 Venice Film Festival, Park Chan-wook premiered No Other Choice, where You Man-su, paper-factory manager , is fired and told by the American owner, `We have no other choice`.
- After an American parent company bought his paper firm, You Man-su faced downsizing that threatened his home, deepened by sexual jealousy, yet he insists on seeking another job at Moon Paper to regain dignity.
- Adapted from Donald Westlake's 1997 novel The Ax, No Other Choice blends satire, thriller, melodrama, and farce in a 139-minute film praised for Lee Byung-hun's surprising slapstick skill.
- After its Venice debut Friday, No Other Choice scored an extended ovation and will open the Busan International Film Festival on September 17, with a Korea release on September 24; Neon will handle U.S. theatrical release this fall while Mubi covers international distribution.
- The film frames automation as a timely employment threat, highlighting Korean families' mortgage struggles and belt-tightening, while Park Chan-wook critiques executives' `no other choice` rationale.
12 Articles
12 Articles
No Other Choice review: Park Chan-wook's killer comedy is more than paper thin
“Losing my job is not my choice.” It’s a phrase spoken more than once in Park Chan-wook’s latest film, No Other Choice, a black comedy set in the often dispiriting white-collar world of work.Premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival, as anyone familiar with the South Korean Park’s ‘vengeance trilogy’, including the acclaimed Oldboy, will know, his movies are not for the feint-hearted. Even when they’re ostensibly comedies.In this cas…
In competition, the French director's movie "pied d"œuvre" and the Korean "Eojjeol suga eopda": both speak of unemployment, with very different outcomes
Park Chan-Wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ Gets 8 1/2-Minute Ovation In Venice
Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, which marks the Korean filmmaker’s first time playing in the Venice Film Festival competition, scored an 8 1/2-minute ovation Friday after the jet-black comedy thriller’s world premiere. The 12th movie from the Oldboy, Handmaiden and Decision to Leave writer-director is based on the 1997 novel The Ax by Donald Westlake and follows […]
This Friday evening in Competition of 82nd Mostra del Cinema, the Korean filmmaker proposed his version of Donald E. Westlake's novel. He signed a radical social comedy. ...
It seems to be done on purpose, and certainly it is, but to program in Competition in Venice 2025 is to be "A pied d'oeuvre" of the French Valerie Donzelli who "No other choice" of the Korean Park Chan-wook means not only excellent cinema, but to keep open eyes on the criminal transformation of the world of contemporary work. Donzelli chooses to follow the slow, gradual, conscious slipping into a precarious working condition of a man (Basien Bou…
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