Title – No Other Choice (2025)

Director – Park Chan-wook (Oldboy)

Cast – Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Yeom Hye-ran

Plot – After being let go from his beloved job at a local paper factory, Man-Su (Byung-hun) looks at extreme measures to get back into the employment landscape and keep his comfortable lifestyle afloat.  

“How many other candidates will there be?”

Review by Eddie on 22/04/2026

Curiously overlooked by this year’s Academy Awards coming away with 0 nominations, all despite glowing critical acclaim, audience reception and a swag of awards from across the globe, Park Chan-wook’s latest unique piece of filmmaking is a fantastically made epic that adapts Donald Westlake’s source material into a darkly comically exploration of modern society and one man’s desperate attempt to live out his ambitions.

After years of wowing audiences with the likes of his crowning achievement Oldboy, the much adored The Handmaiden and recent critical darling Decision to Leave, No Other Choice finds Chan-wook in familiar territory, mashing genres together to create an unnerving, hilarious, scary and satirical feature that suffers from tonal whiplash at times and a running time that loses steam after a particularly strong opening half.

Wonderfully filmed, in a Chan-wook film even someone drinking from a glass can become a work of art, with the work of editors Kim Ho-bin and Kim Sang-beom also needing to be highlighted when one talks about Choice, Chan-wook’s often bizarre mix of proceedings has clearly worked for a large selection of viewers but for some (like myself), there’s a sense not everything comes together as well as you’d have hoped for as the bloody and highly improbable ventures of Lee Byung-hun’s Man-Su take full flight.

A paper loving man who wishes nothing more than to be back on the factory floor after being laid off by his long-term employer, Man-Su and his family that includes a very tolerant partner Miri (played well by Son Ye-jin), two loving children and two unfortunate golden retrievers go through it when he enters into a long and sustained period of unemployment, with risky measures to get back into the paper industry on his mind when a life working in any other job just doesn’t compute.

It’s hard to fully get on board with Man-su’s selfish journey and while there’s some great Coen Brothers like satire and dark comedy going on in Chan-wook’s film, not to mention some of his famed violence, things grow increasingly repetitive and far-fetched as the films close to two and half hour running time goes on and on.

Devoid of any truly likable characters, there may be many meaningful topics Chan-wook is exploring here, such as modern working culture, capitalism, moral bankruptcy and even toxic masculinity but it’s hard to escape the feeling that Choice was trying to be too many things at once instead of focussing on its most well-rounded and interesting elements.

The films an undoubted work of art with some committed acting turns, but for me (and potentially a handful of others) this piece of work by one of the world’s most interesting and unique filmmakers isn’t up there with his very best.

Final Say –

There’s a lot at play in No Other Choice and Chan-wook can’t ever be accused of taking the easy route but while technically this is a flawless exercise, there’s something amiss at the core of this tales being that holds it back from becoming something great.

3 1/2 snake bites out of 5