Rating	NC16 Violence and Sexual Scene 暴力及性相关画面
Language	Koreanwith English & Chinese subtitles
Genre	Black Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Director	Park Chan-wook
Cast	Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won
Synopsis	After being laid off by his company, a man devises a unique plan to secure a new job: eliminate his competition.

REVIEWS

By Riin 24 Oct 2025

The darkest, funniest, most tautly layered film about one man’s descent into villainy thanks to the industrial complex.

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‘No Other Choice’ is a line echoed by many characters in the film. When Man-Soo (Lee Byung Hun) is let go without warning and struggles to keep his family in the same house, he feels no other choice but to murder his competition for a chance at a new job opening.

It’s a premise that taps right into current anxieties around unemployment and the unstable job market, making the murder spree that Man-Soo goes on just slightly more relatable. Not only does Man-Soo have an entire family and a huge house to support, but his 25 years of loyalty to the company has left him suddenly untethered to cope with moving into a new industry, or identity.

Whereas Parasite (2019) was about a family in poverty in contention with a sheltered, upper-class existence, No Other Choice puts itself firmly in the shoes of a wealthy white collar worker who doesn’t know who he is without a job, but comes across as being sympathetic and charming, despite being the type of person who would be the villain in anyone else’s story.

It may be tempting to call No Other Choice ‘chaotic’ or ‘unhinged’ given how absurd the humour is, but Park Chan-Wook shows finesse in crafting another layered, tightly controlled piece of artistry that magnifies the glaring cracks of our system. A system that rewards cutthroatness, competitiveness, and cutting corners.

Even Man-Soo’s chosen profession – paper – is purposeful. Outside of his work, Man-Soo tends to his greenhouse with care, seemingly enraptured by nature. But as he descends into being more elaborate with his murders, he becomes stripped of humanity, turning more into a cog of the machine.

To choose paper – something that has to be taken from nature, stripped of impurity and bleached chemically white so that it can be imprinted on – is nothing short of brilliant. Men like Man-Soo succeed only when they treat solidarity as disposable, becoming a blank vessel for a company that does not care if he has a family to look after.

No Other Choice is a deeply layered, hilarious and deliciously dark foray about the systemic forces that guide people to become the worst versions of themselves, and a masterclass in filmmaking.
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No Other Choice

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