No Other Choice review

NO OTHER CHOICE: 

PARK CHAN-WOOK CRAFTS ONE WILD AND DARKLY FUNNY RIDE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

NEON

Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice

 

            A paper industry expert decides to literally kill the competition in No Other Choice, the new black-comedy film from director Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave) based on the 1997 horror thriller novel, The Ax by Donald Westlake, which was also adapted into the French thriller film, The Axe in 2005. This movie was certainly causing a lot of buzz at film festivals last year with many people hailing it as one of the best films from 2025 (The film was officially released in the United States in 2026). 

            Needless to say, I was interested after seeing the trailers and hearing about all the film festival buzz it got and yeah, it deserves all the praise it’s been getting. While I’m not sure I enjoyed this film on the same level as Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, this is a very entertaining and funny movie that had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, laughing hard along the way. 

            The film follows paper industry expert, Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun-G.I. Joe 1 and 2, RED 2, KPop Demon Hunters) who is fired from his long-time job at a paper company after a buyout by Americans results in many employees being fired. Desperate to maintain his lifestyle and provide for his family, Man-su decides to kill off his competition in order for him be assured of the job he seeks to keep it the way it is. 

            The film also stars Son Ye-jin (Spellbound, The Last Princess, The Truth Beneath) as Man-su’s wife Lee Mi-ri, Park Hee-soon (Seven Days, The Scam, 1987: When the Day Comes) as Choi Seon-chul, Lee Sung-min (Golden Time, The Spy Gone North, The Witness) as Goo Beom-mo, Yeom Hye-ran (When the Camellia Blooms, The Glory, Mask Girl) as Beom-mo’s wife and struggling veteran actress Lee A-ra, Cha Seung-won (Ghost House, Blood Rain, One Ordinary Day) as Ko Si-jo, and Yoo Yeon-seok (Oldboy, Re-encounter, Whistle Blower) as dentist and employer of Mi-ri Oh Jin-ho. 

            Overall, No Other Choice probably won’t have the same cultural impact as a film like Parasite (Only time will tell), but this is still an expertly crafted, funny, and thoroughly unpredictable movie that needs to be seen asap. There wasn’t a single low point in this movie for me as I thought everything is perfectly paced, it’s consistently funny and interesting, and even when I think the film is about to go downhill, it reels me back in with either something extremely funny or shocking that happens. 

            I had no idea where this film was going or what the resolution of all this by the end would be like and much of its entertainment value does come from watching this desperate ex-paper company worker dig deeper and deeper into trouble with every action he takes. This is where the majority of the film’s dark humor comes from, seeing Byung-hun get into crazy situations and how he’s going to get out of them for the sake of getting that job to maintain his happy life. 

            There’s one particular sequence where Byung-hun’s character considers murder and loud music is playing while this is happening which leads into a hilariously wild “action” scene where he’s fleeing from the wife of one of the competitors he was about to kill who’s shooting at him with a gun that made me laugh hysterically. The movie throughout has a ton of great, laugh out loud moments that I’d rather not spoil here and wanted to highlight this as an example, just go watch it for yourself. 

The film itself is a social satire on the corporate world and does albeit comedically highlight the struggles people have with job finding, the big fat cats firing veteran employees when new ownerships and mergers happen, or the simple competitive race for that job that will secure a happy life. I don’t think many of us resorted to literally killing the competition in our quests for jobs, but you see where Byung-hun’s character is coming from and understand why he feels the need to do this, job searching can feel like a bloody war sometimes which the film even mentions in a few scenes. 

Lee Byung-hun is magnificent here and gives a truly exceptional performance as Man-su, this desperate man who will go to extreme lengths…just for a mild-mannered job. Byung-hun plays this role incredibly well and goes through various emotional states over the course of the film and despite what he’s doing behind his wife’s back, I found him very endearing and worth rooting for which is something you don’t often say about a character who’s committing murder. 

I don’t know what it is about South Korea, but they manage to shoot movies better than most films made in Hollywood between this and Parasite. Everything from the camera tricks, the lighting, the editing, and interior shots of houses made epic, all of it looks incredible on the big screen and if you can see it in theaters, do so that way you can really bask in what you’re looking at on the screen. 

It’s hard to say if No Other Choice will be built up as the next Parasite considering how stacked 2025 was in terms of movies (Sinners, One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme, etc.), but this is easily one of the best films from that year and had I saw it in 2025, it would have made it in the Top 5. It’s a masterfully crafted, hysterical, and unconventional joy ride with thought-provoking social satire, completely insane scenarios, gorgeous production design and mind-blowing shot composition, and an incredible performance from Lee Byung-hun that stands among Park Chan-Wook’s best work. 

Absolutely go see this in theaters, film enthusiasts everywhere have “No Other Choice”.