No Other Choice – Film Review

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won

Director: Park Chan-wook

Synopsis: After being laid off from his long-term job, one man takes matters into his own hands to land a new one…

Review: A beautiful sunny day with a family meal, capped off with a group hug in the garden of their beautiful family home. At this moment, the family patriarch Yoo Man-Su confidently proclaims “I’ve got everything”. It is hard to argue with his assessment: a loving wife, two children, two beautiful pet dogs, a stable long-term job and an idyllic house. This is a man who has it made. Yet, in this fierce and uncompromising satire from Park Chan-wook, such is the unpredictable nature of the workforce as we know it that in the modern day and age, all that serenity and blissful happiness can be obliterated in the blink of an eye, bringing you crashing back down to earth with an almighty thud.

After working for 25 years as a senior employee at the paper manufacturer Solar Paper, Man-Su (Lee Byung-hun) is one of many workers who have been made redundant after an American takeover of the company led to a brutal cut in its workforce. Initially confident that he would find a new job within a few months, he begins to lose confidence as the weeks turn into months, with no prospect of being hired again. With several other candidates in the exact same boat as him, Man-su is left with little alternative, or indeed, no other choice, but to take matters into his own hands to ensure that it is he who gets the role should another job opportunity come knocking.

As Dolly Parton famously once sang, “Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living”. Such is the nature of the harsh and unforgiving capitalist system that demands everyone in society must find a job to contribute, which will, in turn, help to pay for life’s essentials. Sometimes it can lead people to find and prosper in their dream job, but it can also leave people trapped in a job they hate, or as Man-Su discovers, can be so utterly heartless as to cut someone adrift even after many years of service. Adapted from the novel “The Ax” by Donald Westlake, the script by Chan-wook and co-writers Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar and Lee Ja-hye, is a blisteringly sharp critique of this economic system and the pressures it puts upon people, where the loss of income necessary to survive can cause any sane individual to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. But, as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Furthermore, the film excoriates the culture of toxic masculinity, as such culture demands that the man of the house must be the one to be the provider or the breadwinner for his family, a concept that deserves to be left in the past where it belongs. Given his dire predicament and the fact that Man-Su is literally resorting to crime to provide for his family, it would seem unlikely to be fertile ground for humour, but master filmmakers find a way, and Chan-Wook does exactly that. For a man who’s worked in the paper industry for decades, perpetrating acts of violence is, well, something he is not exactly experienced at. It makes it all the more amusing to watch as Man-Su goes from a veteran of the paper industry to a hitman not-for-hire. Absolute chaos ensues, and thanks to some extremely brisk editing, the pacing never lags to allow the audience to revel in the extremely pitch-black humour of Man-Su’s mission to literally eliminate the competition.

To have lost one’s gainful employment, especially due to factors beyond their control, is never a pleasant experience. Byung-hun’s outstanding performance evokes sympathy for Man Su’s situation, although such sympathy quickly dissipates when the severity of his plight leads him to use violent methods to improve his employment prospects. Nevertheless, it remains endlessly compelling and entertaining, from how he chooses to pick off his targets to the manner in which he ensures that there is not a trace of suspicion that could tie him to the murders when the police inevitably begin to investigate. This puts his family, especially his wife Lee Mi-ri (Ye-jin), in a tricky situation when she begins to suspect what her husband may be up to.

Combined with some truly brilliant and innovative cinematography from Kim Woo-hyung, who effectively deploys the camera in a variety of innovative ways, including at the bottom of a glass, Chan-Wook’s direction is some of the finest you will see all year, keeping the audience in suspense. Filmmakers of recent years have often focused on the disparity of wealth between the 1% and the majority whose hard graft usually leads to the 1% acquiring such wealth. Chan-wook builds on this and in so doing, delivers a scathing and timely rebuke of a system where you can work for many years at a particular company, and yet, that company would likely have no hesitation in dumping you without a second thought. A paper cut of the most brutal and unforgiving variety, who knew such an industry could be so cutthroat and brutal?