No Other Choice

Yoo Man-su has “got it all.” A family, a home, a career. So when he’s unexpectedly laid off, he will do anything to preserve his idyllic life. In Park Chan-wook’s latest, No Other Choice, the Korean director takes a shrewd, if satirical, look at the dog-eat-dog competition bred by capitalist systems. Instilling a Hitchcockian sense of humor, Park adapted the story from crime novelist Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 book, The Ax, which Costa-Gavras adapted in 2005. It’s been a passion project for Park, who started developing his version over a decade ago. The material feels rather light and effortless next to some of his earlier work, from Oldboy (2003) to The Handmaiden (2016). But it’s no less potent a picture, slyly arming its twisted premise with commentary on how corporations have scaled back the human workforce in favor of automation, artificial intelligence, and higher profits. And though Park set out to make his masterpiece, I wouldn’t rank No Other Choice among his very best; however, it’s a skillfully made, thoroughly entertaining screwball thriller with searing relevance. 

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