Ever had a rival? What would you do to win that battle? What if your family’s well-being was on the line? What if your well-being was on the line? What if you just didn’t like the person? No Other Choice isn’t so much about a rivalry as a desperate man scheming as one does to defeat a rival, but in this case, the “rival” is societal algorithms; the people are just collateral damage. No biggie.
Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) seems to have a perfect life. Nice house, beautiful wife, two kids (one a prodigy), two dogs, no static. Uh oh.
Dudes, never start a film with perfection; it can only go downhill from there. Sure enough, the paper company genius is laid off after a buyout. He has plenty of industry-aligned skills, but not a whole lot of transferable ones. He vows getting back on his feet in three months. Over a year later, he’s a stockboy in a supermarket. That is not a six-figure job (at last look).
After a really ugly interview, Man-su is a little Man-desperate. Man-su, seriously, I am the king of humiliating interviews. Don’t sweat it. Just apply to ten other companies. Not going to do that? Ok, what are you going to do? In the middle of plotting to kill the man who humbled him, Man-su’s foolishness is caught out, and then he hits upon a much better strategy: 1) Invent your own paper company. 2) Advertise for your ideal job. 3) See who applies. 4) Rank them. 5) Kill all the guys who are better than you.
Ok, that’s a pretty good plot … for a movie. This is not a winning plot IRL.
That said, I think this film comes off a little better in theory. In practice, No Other Choice is a little clumsy. Man-su isn’t a killer, but once he treads this path, he kinda has to go there. You don’t half-ass serial murder, right? And, of course, we the audience are left with the question of: “Do we really want him to succeed? At what cost?” This is all complicated by the fact that Man-su isn’t really
a killer; he’s a paper company executive. And lemme ask this: what happens when you kill off all the paper company executives? How will South Korea ever survive?
No Other Choice is an amiable black comedy. It helps if you don’t take it too seriously, because none of us really wants to root for a family-man-turned-serial-killer-by-circumstance. Then again, none of really wants to root for a paper company executive of any kind anyway, so he may as well be killing people. I think this film is overrated when it shows up in Oscar discussions, but I’ll happily give it a pass until then.
There once was an executive, Man-su
Who got fired and didn’t know what to do
He decided, for survival
To kill every rival
Only then would his middle management dream come true
Rated R, 139 Minutes
Director: Park Chan-wook
Writer: Donald E. Westlake, Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyong-mi
Genre: When power lunches turn deadly
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Corporate stiffs
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People against “the end justifies the means” mentalities
