Film Shapes

Writer/Director Park Chan-wook likes to experiment with his output. This blackly comic farce follows his previous, Decision to Leave , which, on the face of it, couldn't be more different. But regardless of the content or genre, Park fills his films with his signature cuts, which can be a touch showy but effective nonetheless. No Other Choice is a cautionary tale of modern employment, where everyone is competing with everyone else, executives and company bosses treat their workforce like scum, and people tend to compromise on the basics of society - in the case of our protagonist, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), this means not committing murder.  The film plays out like Kind Hearts and Coronets with a Korean David Brent in the lead. Man-su is a factory foreman at a paper manufacturing company, planning to protest the imminent sacking of some of his underlings, when he realises why his higher-ups have gifted him some expensive eel. It's not a reward, it's compensation for what...

Park Chan-wook has a fine back catalogue, full of brutal beauty and oddly juxtaposing shots. His 'Vengeance Trilogy' alone ( Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance , Oldboy and Lady Vengeance ) would be enough to give him a seat at the table, but fill that CV out with Thirst , Stoker and The Handmaiden , and there's some heft right there. His latest film, Decision to Leave , won him the best director gong at Cannes back May 2022, and it's a just reward. The film begins quite rapidly, getting a number of things out in a flurry. We meet two detectives, Jang Hae-joon (played by Park Hae-il) and Soo-wan (Go Kyung-Pyo), learn a bit about their cases, their family life and office hierarchies. While attempting to nail one murder case shut, the body of a climber is discovered at the foot of a gnarly-looking peak. Accident? Suicide? Something more tasty? The dead man's young Chinese wife, Song Seo-rae, impeccably played by Tang Wei (from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution and Michael Mann...