No Other Choice

Director Park Chan-wook's dark comedy offers an unusual solution to a man's struggle to find a job in modern times. We're introduced to Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a valued long-time employee of a paper-making company who loses his position after an American buyout and automation make his job obsolete. After struggling to find a new job for months, while taking various retail jobs that don't allow the family to keep the same lifestyle, Man-su changes his tactics and begins investigating his most likely competition with plans to literally eliminate the competition.

Identifying a small group of men who have similar qualifications, and the same love for paper that more than borders on a fetish, but are more likely to be hired in an increasingly niche industry, he decides to kill them one-by-one until he becomes the most attractive applicant to any job opening. This will allow the desperate man to keep his family together and not sell his childhood home (which he spent years working to reacquire).

Park Chan-wook's setup allows the film to go into unexpected places as Man-su attempts to put his plan into action. However, I wanted him, and others in the film (such as the police who appear rather oblivious to what is actually happening), to all be slightly more competent and less buffoonish as the film goes from dark comedy into an outright farce at times. I also wanted a little more exploration into his family which I think would allow that thread to pay off with some added emotional impact.

While its absurdity cuts a bit too deeply into its dramatic and thriller aspects, at times undercutting the dramatic tension, No Other Choice is still an incredibly well-made film that focuses on the modem struggle of man ever since the Industrial Revolution when machines began making man obsolete which has once again been brought to the forefront as the rise of AI. Despite his insane plan, and his struggle to carry it out, Man-su's desperation is easy for the audience to tap into and I'll give Park Chan-wook an enormous amount of credit for finding a way for his protagonist to remain sympathetic despite, you know, all the murder.

• Title: No Other Choice
• IMDb: link