Release Date – 23rd January 2026, Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 19 minutes, Director – Park Chan-wook
Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is made redundant from his years-long, high-paying job, losing his and his family’s life of luxury. To get a new job, and reclaim that life, he desperately seeks to eliminate the competition.
“Losing your job isn’t the problem. The problem is how you deal with it.” Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) chooses to deal with the loss of his well-paying job of 25 years, leading a small team at a paper company’s factory, by getting out there and getting a new job. However, despite interviews in his former industry, he only finds jobs that just help him and his family to scrape by. Thus, when a job much like his former position comes up he sets out to research the competition and eliminate them as best he can.
It’s not quite the case that the dark comedy in Park Chan-wook’s latest is truly dark, and more that the film as a whole is a very dark affair. Properly finding its flow as this tone settles in with callbacks to Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda as Man-su takes it upon himself to off his fellow candidates, starting with those who post the biggest threat to his chances of employment. Yet, unlike Palin’s Ken, Lee’s character is guided largely by dead-pan fear, which itself stems from a sense of greed. After having cancelled dance lessons and tennis sessions, given away the family dogs and moved to a smaller place (without a Netflix subscription!) Man-su is desperate to get him and his family back to the life they once lived.
Lee delivers a strong performance with much veiled behind his straight-faced expression. Park brings about a similar tone to the way in which he views the film, looking on the events seriously and bringing out the sinister edges of the central character’s desperation as it becomes more deadly. Bringing out a good handful of chuckles along the way, especially once past the wealthy lifestyle set-up. It’s the attempt at planning, and stages and struggles of execution, where the film feels most clear and has the best flow. Perhaps why also the ending feels somewhat drawn-out – although the film as a whole generally gets through it’s 139-minute run-time with relative ease thanks to the focus that it develops in the twisted job hunt at hand.
The serious way in which writer-director Park looks at these events is maintained throughout and adds to the layer of commentary present in the social satire that constructs much of what we see. As things go on the familiar idea of machine-working comes into play, although within the much more present modern context and links to AI. It’s worked into brief looks at the wider workforce, also impacted by the layoffs that Man-su is subject to, but not touched upon by his perspective. Pushing the idea of greed, and malice alongside it, that seems to motivate his actions more than anything else – next to the pressure from his family.
A dark comedy with emphasis on the darkness in its satire, No Other Choice leans best as Lee Byung-hun’s brilliant dead-pan performance fractures amongst the desperate Fish Called Wanda antics where the film feels most direct and solid.
Just A Little Bit Random 