No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan-Wook)

by Jack Martin | Jan 21, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 139 mins

UK Distributor: MUBI

UK Release Date: 23 January 2026

WHO’S IN NO OTHER CHOICE?

Lee Byung-Hun, Son Ye-Jin, Park Hee-Soon, Lee Sung-Min, Yeom Hye-Ran, Cha Seung-Won, Yoo Yeon-Seok

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Park Chan-Wook (director, writer, producer), Lee Ja-Hye, Lee Kyoung-Mi and Don McKellar (writers), Cho Young-Wuk (composer), Kim Woo-Hyung (cinematographer), Kim Sang-Bum (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A desperate unemployed man (Byung-Hun) sets out to eliminate his competition for a new job…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON NO OTHER CHOICE?

I’m not going to lie to you: No Other Choice was very difficult to sit through for me. Not that I found the movie to be bad – quite the opposite, in fact – but as someone who’s been in a state of unemployment for longer than I’d care to admit, it was more than a little uncomfortable to watch those feelings of inadequacy and desperation whilst searching for suitable and steady work play out in such an honest and all-too real manner.

Discomfort is certainly one of the many things that South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook wants the viewer to feel whilst watching his latest movie, regardless of whether you’re comfortably employed or, like me, still searching for the perfect money-earning position, but none are more necessary than that of laughter. The macabre kind of laughter, to be precise, as Chan-Wook’s dark comedy depicts the universal struggle to find work as a hilarious yet soul-destroying ritual that can lead people to do increasingly unhinged things in order to get ahead of everyone else.

We begin with Yoo Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun) and his family, including wife Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-Jin) and their young kids, enjoying a comfortable life that is funded by his 25-year stint as a manager at a top paper company, a role that he is abruptly dismissed from during a company-wide layoff. Months pass, and Man-soo is unable to find work that comes anywhere close to the level of skill and salary he’s spent years working towards, forcing the family to make numerous sacrifices like giving away their pet dogs and, in the most heartbreaking case of all, being forced to put up for sale their house which Man-soo also grew up in. He eventually learns of what could be the perfect position at another successful paper factory, as well as the numerous other candidates who could potentially be picked instead, so Man-soo sets out on a thoroughly misguided mission to literally eliminate the competition.

Chan-wook is at his most outwardly comedic with No Other Choice, a film that takes sharp satirical aim at the ruthlessness of modern-day capitalism and the lengths one goes to get a mere taste of success. It’s a lot of fun, as the filmmaker employs his overt visual style to a wild caper with a murderous edge, one that compliments the fragmented and beautifully chaotic journey that our delirious anti-hero embarks on. The style heightens the comedy while also not completely distracting from it, as Chan-wook carefully balances the tone with steadily paced moments where you get to see things from other characters’ point of view, including the potential victims of Byung-hun’s Man-soo, making later moments feel all the more uncomfortably funny given that you now understand some of the context surrounding such parts.

There are enjoyable layers to peel back as Chan-wook pays close attention to how the cutthroat economic environment slowly corrupts not just Man-soo, whom Byung-hun portrays with oodles of uncouth energy, but those who are also indirectly affected by their desperation. In particular, his wife Mi-ri finds herself in a number of undesirable positions thanks to her husband’s lack of financial stability, so when she inevitably begins to catch onto his disturbing after-hours activities, the film raises some interesting questions about whether or not to turn a blind eye to these extreme and very much criminal revelations if, at the end of the day, it means she and her family can reclaim the life they have lost. All of these characters, in one way or another, have been so poorly treated by the system that they’ve had to resort to animalistic tendencies in order to regain their lost stability, namely becoming predatory creatures targeting their helpless prey, a concept that Chan-wook wisely doesn’t push to similar extremities but nonetheless enjoys conveying through sheer madcap energy.

As to be expected from Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice is incredibly stylish, complete with most of the filmmaker’s attributes like flashy scene transitions and moments of dreamlike surreality that are accompanied by colourful cinematography. For those who may have been a bit iffy on the filmmaker’s style in past films, I don’t see this film swaying many of those people, because his is a very overt approach that can often distract from the storytelling and sometimes even feel as though there’s little reason for it to be there at all, and the style in this film is no different. I remember having similar issues with Chan-wook’s previous film Decision to Leave, an otherwise straightforward Hitchcockian thriller that I initially struggled to get on board with due to its overly flamboyant style that didn’t quite match the material. While I found the integration of the director’s style in No Other Choice to be all around smoother, there were times when I could feel myself starting to be taken out of the story being told and being forced to sit through yet more of Chan-wook’s attention-grabbing artistry.

To reiterate, I enjoyed No Other Choice quite a bit, and for my money it’s his best feature since 2015’s The Handmaiden, possibly even since his 2003 breakout Oldboy. But for those who, like myself, have experienced the utter despair of unemployment and the feelings of inadequacy that come with it, there should probably be some kind of trigger warning beforehand that lets everyone know beforehand that, while you’ll have a good time overall, it may cause intense anxiety as you’re reminded of your own, hopefully less murderous sense of desperation when it comes to finding stable, honest work.

SO, TO SUM UP…

No Other Choice is a highly entertaining and overwhelmingly stylish darkly comedic thriller from filmmaker Park Chan-wook that explores a wide range of feelings surrounding unemployment, from desperation to murderous immorality, to a point where it might trigger some anxiety within those in similar circumstances.