‘No Other Choice’ Review: Capitalism Kills in Ferocious Film From Park Chan-Wook

©Neon

“No Other Choice”

The courage and strength needed to stare into someone’s eyes right before firing a gun is not a trait naturally given to most. It’s a quick moment in a long life of experiences, but a simple pull of the finger ends a whole life. It ends a life with a history in papermaking, a fading romance, and a love for the arts. For Man-Soo (Lee Byung-hun), he finds himself in the position to stain his life forever in exchange for the safety and financial security of his family.

Taking a few steps back, businessman and paperman Man-Soo, played by Lee Byung-hu of ‘Squid Game’ fame, has recently been fired from his job. He wasn’t an unproductive worker, in fact, he was the exact opposite. He dedicated almost his entire life to the craftsmanship and beauty that presents itself in papermaking. In the film’s opening, he tries to explain the community that the paper has created to the new American executives, and he hopes to save everyone’s jobs. With that being said, loyalty, skill, and him being the generally ideal worker were still not enough to keep him strapped onto the Solar Paper company. Man-Soo was gifted with a piece of eel, as a final goodbye.

Everyone’s hungry for work, and while there’s been an increase in unemployment, there hasn’t been an increase in jobs. The opposite has taken place in recent years as the stability of jobs have been completely threatened. Through the introduction of remote machinery, defunding of government programs, and a literal pandemic, the job market has begun to look barren. For Man-Soo, the disappointment launched at him is one of the hardest obstacles to tackle. It slowly starts to eat him alive, and his family’s comfort and safety gets questioned once they become at risk of losing their home.

©Neon

“No Other Choice”

Park Chan-Wook doesn’t hold back, and he points the gun right into the eyes of late-stage capitalistic practices. As he pulls the trigger, the hilarious yet devastating portrait of an everyday worker is turned into a melancholic meditation of the current world around us. The film’s title, ‘No Other Choice’, is repeated to resemble the pressure placed within these situations. There could be a million different options to solving the crisis at hand, but the constant pushing down of the average person has driven everyone into insanity. Working our way to the top has become a different experience because hard work simply doesn’t get us there anymore.

The completely modernized story staples itself in today's age of technology. Park establishes himself as one of the few directors who can heighten the film medium through the use of an iPad of all things. Each shot is meticulously framed to fully lure you into the intensity and suspense. About an hour in, the seed implanted by Park delivers with a sequence containing some of the year’s best thrills. Elevating the entire film, Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin become the beating heart of it. The tender, and at points electric performances are absolutely wonderful.

The experience crafted is presented with care, love, and one of the year’s best scripts. It becomes the opposite of the kind of work it critiques: boring, repetitive, and inhumane. Park Chan-Wook’s genius carries afloat a decade-best film.