Gemma Creagh lands that promotion for her review of Park Chan-wook's dark comedy.
One wonders why No Other Choice – a biting criticism of the crippling cost of capitalism – struggled to raise funds to film in the U.S.. This Korean-language film - based on the popular novel The Ax (1997) by Donald E. Westlake - is actually set in 1990s corporate America, and the ideological premise is more timely than ever. In 2013, South Korean director Park Chan-wook filmed his last English-language film Stoker starring Nicole Kidman. Yet he tried for over 20 years to make No Other Choice stateside to no avail. Unable to secure financing, Chan-wook set the murderously funny, character-driven commentary in his home country. Yes. One wonders indeed.
In his large, comfortable suburban home, paper executive Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) enjoys a comfortable life. He shares this with his affectionate, attractive wife, Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin); teenage son, Si-one (Kim Woo-seung); young daughter, Ri-one (Choi So-yul); and two rambunctious dogs. After 25 years of service, he's made redundant when the company he worked for was acquired and restructured. Now cast adrift, he joins the legions of professional men - newly unemployed, overly qualified and all desperately looking for work.
Man-su’s pride ensures his family burns through their savings quickly. With their home on the line, Man-su and his family are forced to make cuts. Mi-ri returns to work for their local dentist. All classes and extracurriculars (except for cello) for the kids are cancelled, and their two dogs are shipped off to live with their grandparents, a devastating blow to Ri-one, who relied on them for comfort due to her disability.
After a host of humiliating interviews, and being ghosted after countless applications, Man-su decides another approach. He retrains, enters another industry at a lower level, and goes to therapy…Just kidding! No, he doubles down and concocts a terrible plan: he’s going to eliminate the competition. Permanently. First, he identifies his professional rivals. Gu Beom-mo (Lee Sung-min) is an older war veteran with years of experience. Ko Si-jo (Cha Seung-won) is a hard-working father who now sells shoes to support his family. And Park Hee-soon (Choi Seon-chul) is a cocky influencer with a coveted line-manager role, promoting the lifestyle of living in the wilderness from his cushy modern house.
Man-su stalks these men, crouching in bushes, getting mauled by snakes. In watching their tragic lives unfold from the shadows, he finds parallels with his own. As a younger man climbs out of Gu Beom-mo’s bedroom, the infidelity means Man-su casts suspicion on his own wife’s relationship with her boss. Watching Ko Si-jo’s generosity to his own daughter is also a bitter pill. At home, Man-su struggles parenting his son, who has started to get into trouble with the law. Victim number three, Park Hee-soon’s divorce and alcoholism mirror Man-su’s own personal failings over the years. Fiscal, professional and personal pressures mount. When law enforcement knocks, asking inconvenient questions, Man-su embarks on a journey of increasingly dark and desperate choices.
In many ways, No Other Choice is a reverse Fight Club. In that 1999 adaptation, men banded together as the foot soldiers of Project Mayhem to reject capitalism and structure and find their place in the world. In this film, Man-su fights against all other men to preserve his modest place in the prevailing economic pecking order. This in turn proves to be the perfect conduit to examine the potential for darkness within the human condition. How far will someone go to protect their fiefdom?
This is similar in nature to the question Park Chan-wook posed in his Vengeance trilogy and are many common themes, familiar from across his array of impressive features over the years. His distinct authorial voice serves as the perfect spoon full of sugar to help the bitter bleakness go down. His narratives are so palatable because of the rich vein of brilliant devised comedy threaded through them. When the violence kicks off in this film, there are no stylised, skilful fight sequences or choreographed ‘clawhammer’ moments. Picture the awkward, uncomfortable fumbling that may or may not result in a crotch to the face, punctuated with bludgeoning via an unorthodox object.
What’s also distinct, and really adds to the depth of No Other Choice, is how despite the premise - this is something of an ensemble. Chan-wook spends considerable time with each of Man-su’s rivals and with his family. Very few side characters are lightly drawn, and we gain little specks of insight into their motivation, whether it’s the philandering wife of Sung-min and her incompetent attempt to save Man-su from a snake bite, or Mi-ri’s pained attempt to flirt with the enemy to save her son from prosecution. These rich and frequent side quests do help account for a robust runtime, but they also deepen and elevate the stakes.
Thematically, this film gives an interesting perspective on male value, looking at the nature of the traditional patriarchal family structure and the expectations within the failing systems of capitalism. And all without being too preachy. Everyone is complicit, and Man-su is not a sympathetic character by any means. Exhausted by her husband, Lee Mi-ri laments that it’s not Man-su being fired that’s the problem, just how he’s handling it.
The phrase ‘No other choice’ comes from Man-su’s adapting of a soothing tapping technique, taught to the swathes of unemployed men during an uncomfortable self-help group. As the film progresses, this is something these men can be seen repeating as they wait in interviews. Is this funny to watch? Certainly. But at the same time, this action underpins something quite real that’s looming on the horizon of our society: automation is coming for all of us.
No Other Choice is available to stream online now.
Listen back as Gemma chats about this film on RTÉ Radio One's Arena.
