Premiering in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice [+lee también:
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At the centre of this adaptation of the Donald E Westlake 1997 novel The Ax (which was already adapted by Costa-Gavras into The Ax [+lee también:
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The mask of Man-su carries the entire film. At times reminiscent of the bumbling tragicomic heroes of Italian cinema – there is something halfway Kafkaesque everyman and Breaking Bad’s Walter White about his posture and expressions. In this sense, Lee’s performance captures both the absurdity and the menace of an ordinary man gone bad. His gradual descent into ruthless schemes, culminating in a plot to “create” an opening at the prestigious Moon Paper factory, embodies the contradictions of a society that simultaneously idolises stability and thrives on its destruction.

Park surrounds him with a strong supporting ensemble. Son Ye-jin shines as Miri, the quietly rational counterweight to her husband’s unravelling. Her presence anchors the film emotionally, even as Man-su plunges further into grotesque scenarios. Together they sketch a world where work, family, and social recognition blur into one oppressive moloch.

Technical credits are smooth. The score by Cho Young-wuk, long-time Park collaborator, is particularly striking. In one of the feature’s most memorable sequences, music swells to such overpowering intensity that viewers are forced to rely on subtitles to follow the dialogue, their attention fixed on faces contorted by absurd pathos.

That said, the 139-minute run is not entirely justified, and the first half occasionally falters under the weight of repetitive humiliation and sluggish set-up. Yet once the narrative finds its stride, the story becomes rich with twists and tonal shifts. Park juggles slapstick, nerdiness, self-help culture, binge drinking, horror, satire, and thriller tropes with the confidence of a filmmaker who thrives on contaminations.

Ultimately, No Other Choice may not reach the ferocious heights of Park’s Vengeance Trilogy, but it remains a solid chapter in his filmography. The critique of capitalism and the obsession with maintaining social status is hardly subtle, yet it is rendered with a precision that turns cliché into something fresh. The humour is biting, the violence ghastly, and the overall experience both puzzling and rewarding.

No Other Choice was produced by Korea’s Moho Film with France’s KG Productions. CJ ENM is in charge of its world rights.