Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ Unveils a Harrowing Tale of Family and Revenge
“No Other Choice,” the new dark-comedy thriller from acclaimed crime/thriller auteur Park Chan-wook, premiered on August 29 at the Venice International Film Festival, and was released wide in its native South Korea on September 24. However, it won’t come to the United States until December 25. The official English-language (subtitled) trailer for “No Other Choice” dropped on October 8. This trailer promises a film that will be both unsettling and kinetic: a potent combination of socioeconomic horror paired with mordant humor at the expense thereof.
Fired, with a Family to Support – What is one to do?
“No Other Choice” (its Korean title translates literally to “It Cannot Be Helped”) stars Lee Byung-hun as Yoo Man-soo. At the start of the trailer, we see that he is a paper factory worker, as well as a visibly happy husband and father of two children, living in a lovely-looking two-story house with an electric-gated driveway. However, family joy is not at the forefront of this storyline: very soon, it becomes clear that he has been laid off.
Of course, there’s a fair chance that Man-soo will get hired for another job; we see him going to interviews in a suit and tie. The biggest issue on his mind is the number of candidates with whom he’ll be competing. One night, as he and his wife Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin) are discussing one such rival, she says, “Compared to my husband, he’s nothing. Can’t he get hit by lightning?” They both laugh at her words, but after a moment, their smiles rather ominously fade.
Needless to say, the trailer only grows more unsettling from here. “To put food in my family’s mouths,” Man-soo says, “there’s nothing I won’t do. No other choice.” He will subsequently commit such deeds as stalking, kidnapping, and… Well, we don’t see what he does with that handgun nor that chainsaw, but another character says these words: “Those two men have disappeared.”
Effectively Dark and Funny, Neither Aspect Overwhelming the Other
It is evident that “No Other Choice” (which is an adaptation of a 1997 Donald Westlake novel titled “The Ax”) will squander no opportunity for gallows humor. One gag – a moment in which Mi-ri asks her husband, “Did the interview go well?” before the scene cuts to a clip of him revving a chainsaw – is a bit lowbrow and predictable.
However, the trailer compensates with one truly inspired comedic beat: Man-soo turns toward a character who is (presumably) one of his professional rivals and aims a handgun that he keeps concealed under several small cloth bags, thus requiring him to yank no fewer than three bags off his hand before he finally achieves the desired intimidation factor. Kudos, also, to Son’s understated line delivery as Mi-ri explains to her family the cutbacks that they will have no other choice but to make: “Refrain from the listed activities until Dad finds work. No more tennis, my car, and our house.”
This is not to say that the trailer’s mordant laughs undermine the truly depressing gravity of this family’s predicament. Nearly every snippet, whether funny, scary, or both, is underlain with a grimness that makes their economic desperation palpable. One particularly effective clip shows Man-soo draining a glass of alcohol in a single sip, after which we get a blurred view of his face as seen from the bottom of the glass. It’s a poignant metaphor for the precariousness of his situation, as his fleeting pleasure very quickly drains away to be replaced by the unyielding stare of the now-empty vessel.
Early Acclaim, Including Oscar Buzz
Courtesy of the movie’s Venice Film Festival premiere, the trailer for “No Other Choice” comes with the usual enthusiastic blurbs. However, lest one think these quotes are cherry-picked samples of its critical reception, it currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 57 reviews), and it has been chosen as South Korea’s candidate for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Academy Awards.
Overall, “No Other Choice” is shaping up to earn a place on Park Chan-wook’s shelf beside such acclaimed works of his as “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden.” General audiences in America will have to wait another two and a half months before they can see it for themselves, but its early reception, combined with the quality on display in its trailer, gives us every reason for optimism.
