“No Other Choice” – Movie Review

“No Other Choice” or “How to Get the Job: a Field Guide to Eliminating the Competition”

A wickedly funny and sad watch that will resonate especially for those starting off the year with career instability. Starring Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game, The Magnificent Seven, Terminator: Genisys, KPop Demon Hunters), Lee Sung-Min, Son Ye-jin, Yoo Yeon-Seok, and Yeom Hye-ran.

“No Other Choice” is the second film adaption of The Ax by Donald Westlake.

The film is brought to you by Park Chan-Wook, the renowned director who wowed audiences with masterpieces including The Handmaiden and Old Boy.

Man-Su (Lee Byung-hun) has it made. A happy family. The grand South-Korean house he’s worked his whole life to secure. A love for bonsai cultivation. A passionate career in papermaking. You’d be amazed at how many different products require pulp.

It’s a pity he didn’t account for the digital age.

Redundant after 25 years with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, Man-Su attempts to adapt without success for months. That is, until he finally learns of a single vacant position for one of the last profitable paper manufacturers.

He is the perfect candidate. Guaranteed shoe in. Except for a little problem. There’s other carbon copies in the exact same boat as him. And they have better credentials.

As Man-Su’s life falls down all around him, he plots to murder his career opponents and support the comfortable lifestyle he worked so hard to provide for his family.

This film had the entire theatre during the screener laughing and gasping incredulously at the desparate antics by its cast, aggravated displays of male dominance, cruel irony, absurd escalating events including snake venom, a diabolically miscalculated living room skirmish, and bloodthirsty botany.

“No Other Choice” is packed with layers of symbolism that question rather than preach about worker displacement by autonomous labour, masculinity in the modern age, economic pressure, and quietly seething internal monologues and fears of inadequacy expressed exquisitely through perfectly restrained acting.

There’s tension that builds and builds thanks to tango, festering toothache, and a fantastic soundscape (such as the fizzing of beer before a recovered addict) alongside choice camera framing and blocking. And truly razor sharp black humour to balance out the sadness that stems from empathising keenly with those standing in your way.

I think it’s top notch. Ten out of ten from me.

“No Other Choice” hits Luna Leederville and Luna SX this year from 15th January.

* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!

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