How far would you go to get the job you want? South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s (Decision to Leave, Handmaiden) protagonist is pushed to the wall and decides that getting rid of the competition is the only way for him to succeed in this very dark comedy adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel, “The Ax.”
Following the all too sudden downsizing at the paper company where he has been employed for 25 years after the Americans buy the place, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun, “Squid Game”) struggles to find his next position. He’s built a nice life with a nice wife and nice family. He was able to buy his childhood home. His daughter is a talented cellist. His wife spends time playing tennis with her friends. They take dance classes. In short, they’ve made it. So his fall from gainful employment is earth shattering. And finding his next job isn’t so easy, what with automation and consolidation of the paper industry. And Man-su doesn’t really know how to do anything else.
Months pass and the noose is tightening. Man-su has gone to the few interviews for the few jobs in his field and nothing has come to fruition, despite his Pulp Man of the Year award he is so proud of. The mortgage on their house is going into foreclosure; they’ve sent their dogs to stay with his wife’s parents because they are too expensive to feed; their daughter’s cello teacher says she needs to be going to someone better because she has such massive talent; Man-su’s wife Miri (Son Ye-jin) has taken a job at a handsome dentist’s office; and it’s so dire they’ve even had to cancel their Netflix account. Man-su is depressed and desperate, so he comes up with a plan.
He makes up a new paper company and posts an ad online for the job he wants. And then he finds the best candidates, his competition, and kills them. He isn’t an assassin, so his plans don’t go perfectly. In fact, things go very wrong, comically so. It is a wild dark film that captures the insanity of the economic moment we’re living in. Lee Byung-hun is perfect as the everyman pushed to his limit. And the film is a visual delight. It will no doubt be among the contenders for the big awards this season and deservedly so.
No Other Choice was selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards.
In limited release, Christmas Day. Opening wide in January 2026.