No Other Choice finds the director of Oldboy and The Handmaiden back in fine, cynical form.
Pound for pound, South Korea has the most vibrant and interesting film industry on the planet right now. It’s like an iceberg to Western audiences – we only see the tip, the stuff that breaks through internationally, like the Oscar-dominating Parasite and zombie-riffic Last Train To Busan. And, of course, the films of Park Chan-wook, who gave us Oldboy, Thirst, The Handmaiden, and now this slice of dark rat race satire.
No Other Choice Trailer
What’s the plot?
Adapted from the 1997 novel The Ax by revered crime writer Donald E. Westlake (his work inspired Amazon’s recent Play Dirty with Marky Mark), No Other Choice sees Lee Byung-hun as a former paper company office drone who loses his job and has trouble landing another one. Things get desperate, to the point where our put-upon antihero decides his best crack at a new job offering might involve picking off the other likely applicants one by one. So, it’s more of that class war satire that South Korean seems to have a real yen for.
Who’s in it?
- Lee Byung-hun as Yoo Man-su, freshly funemployed and getting increasingly desperate.
- Son Ye-jin as Lee Mi-ri, Man-su’s dental assistant wife.
- Lee Sung-min as Goo Beom-mo, Man-su’s first target and another struggling job hunter.
- Yeom Hye-ran as Lee A-ra, Beom-mo’s frustrated and unfaithful wife and a struggling veteran actress.
- Cha Seung-won as Ko Si-jo, Man-su’s second target.
- Park Hee-soon as Choi Seon-chul, Man-su’s third target.
- Yoo Yeon-seok as Oh Jin-ho, Mi-ri’s dentist boss.
When’s it out?
No Other Choice hits Australian cinemas on January 15, 2026.
What’s the vibe?
No Other Choice copped a nine minute standing ovation when it played at the Venice film Festival, and it’s currently sitting comfortably at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, so the critical acclaim is unarguable. But the fact that it’s a non-more-black satire about the plight of the ever-dwindling middle class means it could have scored zero and we’d still give it a spin.
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