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No Other Choice

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's to come. His dismissal.

This is actually the second adaptation of the Donald Westlake novel, The Ax - the first being a 2005 Costa-Gavras film called The Axe. Westlake is responsible for the source material behind classic hard-boiled 70s thrillers The Outfit and Point Blank, so you'll know what to expect. In saying that, Park lends his pitch black humour to this, which separates it from other Westlake issues.

There are soooo many mentions of the title in the film. Lots of characters seem to have no other choice - the protagonist, of course, but also the management justifying lay-offs; Man-su's competition; even his wife, Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin), who is great fun to watch as she slowly twigs to her hubby's plans. Lee has the majority of the screen time, and is brilliant, but he's given fantastic support from Son, as well as the oddly up and down couple, Beom-mo and A-ra (Lee Sung-min and Yeom Hye-ran). The scene in their house with the stereo too loud is comedy gold.

This is a black comedy with a twist - a rare example of a cautionary tale with (possibly) zero consequences for the protagonist. It could be viewed as an environmental propaganda piece, urging the audience to stop cutting down trees. Depending on your politics though, this might also resonate as a nostalgic return to the past, vocalised in the repeated refrain of, "If we don't use paper, who will?"

No Other Choice opens Jan 15 at the Luna and Palace cinemas.

See also:

Well, Oldboy (2003) is still Park's masterpiece, but Thirst (2009) is great too.

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