The phrase “no other choice” is repeated many times by many people in many contexts in the film of the same name, so we might as well add another use of the phrase right now: South Korean director Park Chan-wook has no other choice but to make big, bold movies that always flirt with going over the edge, and sometimes do a lot more than flirt.
His new film is a case in point. Based on an early 1970s novel by Donald E. Westlake, “The Ax,” it’s a black comedy about an employee in a paper manufacturing plant who is let go by the company’s new American owners (“no other choice,” one says brusquely) and goes to extremes in trying to land new employment. But for the director of “The Handmaiden,” “Decision to Leave” and the epochal action trilogy of “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” “Oldboy” and “Lady Vengeance,” a black comedy doesn’t pass muster unless it’s really black and really comic, which means that “No Other Choice” is awash in murders played for laughs, among other nastiness.
Naturally, a movie that goes way too wrong starts out way too right, as Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) grills up some prime eel sent to him by his grateful company at his perfect country home. Then he hugs his perfect wife and his two perfect kids and announces, “You know what I’m feeling now? I’ve got it all.”
The next morning, though, he has it all except for the job that allowed him to afford it all, as the U.S. company taking over institutes a 20% reduction in the work force. Even though he was the 2019 Pulp Man of the Year – and they don’t give that award to just anybody, OK? – he can’t seem to find a new job, he’s in danger of defaulting on his mortgage and he can’t afford the very expensive cello that his gifted daughter’s music teacher insists she needs.
Oh, and he has a terrible toothache.
The characters, and the movie itself, face these calamities with a forced optimism, Man-su’s insistent grin matched by the film’s brightly lit palette and perky score (given added import by generous helpings of cello-driven classical standards). Of course Man-su will be able to make a fresh start, except that he’s not quite ready to look outside the line of work that put him where he is.
“Paper has fed me for 25 years,” he tells his wife when she suggests a change. “Honey, I have no other choice.”
Eventually, this means that he has no other choice but to get ready for his next job interview – with a homicidal level of preparation, which is to say, identify and eliminate the strongest other candidates for the job.
Park has been wanting to make this film for more than 20 years, during which time the spectre of downsizing and job losses has never not been timely. But while a more measured approach to the subject might have gotten off the ground at some point along the line, the over-the-top extravagance of Park’s approach perhaps needed some careful nurturing.
So we get a snakebite, a do-it-yourself tooth extraction, a drinking contest partly shot from inside a beer mug, a vicious brawl played for comedy in which most of the screaming, yelling and cursing is drowned out by a loud K-pop song, a costume party fight that hinges on a misunderstanding of Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith costumes and all kinds of anarchy choreographed and unleashed by a master.
Park takes his time with all of this, stretching out the happy parts, the ominous and foreboding parts, the violent parts and the slapstick parts; he seemingly subscribes to the notion that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, as long as you’re in control of the whole mess. It’s not as virtuoso a blend of social commentary and wacko violence as, say, Park’s countryman and occasional collaborator Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” but it’s a kick nonetheless.
And while “No Other Choice” leave the impression that the Korean paper manufacturing business is a really terrible career choice, we suspect that the film is telling us about a lot more than just paper.
“No Other Choice” will be released in the U.S. by Neon.
Read all of our Venice Film Festival coverage here.