A withering corporate satire forms the backbone of Park Chan-wook’s new film which is replete with the bravura set pieces for which he’s known. Man-soo (Korean superstar Lee Byung-hun) has it all—great job, wife, two kids, two dogs—until the paper corporation he works for lays him off. When a new job doesn’t manifest after several months and his fantastic life begins to crumble, he arrives at a radical solution to beat the competition.

Cue the elegantly devised macabre sequences that Park is known for in films like Oldboy (2003) and Decision to Leave (2022). The difference here is comedic: Unlike some of the filmmaker’s other protagonists, Man-soo is no natural-born killer, just an ambitious businessman willing to do whatever it takes—no matter how extreme—to reclaim his comfortable life. Adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s novel The Ax, No Other Choice builds to a conclusion that is chillingly of the present moment. —Rod Armstrong

Director: Jeremy Workman (US 2024) 91 min.
In Korean and English with English subtitles
Rated R for violence, language and some sexual content