No Other Choice (2025)

DIRECTED BY PARK CHAN-WOOK

THE STORY

The story that director Park Chan-wook most wanted to make, a drama about a desperate struggle for survival, completed through the eyes of Park Chan-wook.

Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for Oldboy, winner of the Cannes Special Jury Prize in 2009 for Thirst, invited to the Main Competition in 2016 with The Handmaiden, and winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes in 2022 with Decision to Leave… Master director Park Chan-wook, who has captivated audiences with his taboo-breaking plots and finely rendered mise-en-scène, is back. With NO OTHER CHOICE – a story he has long wanted to tell– he presents a film that is completely different from his previous works.

NO OTHER CHOICE is the story of Man-su, an employee at a paper company who is so satisfied with his life that he can truthfully say to himself, “I’ve got it all.” However, after suddenly being fired, he finds himself in a battle to get re-hired in order to keep the family home he has worked so hard to buy, and to protect his wife and two children. NO OTHER CHOICE depicts, through the unique perspective of director Park Chan-wook, how an ordinary person tries to overcome the crisis of being suddenly fired and draws deep empathy from the audience through its realistic situations that anyone in modern times could go through. As Man-su faces increasingly cutthroat competition to be re-hired, he comes to consider resorting to extreme measures. The inner conflict he experiences pulls the audience into a tense and unpredictable narrative.

Director Park Chan-wook’s sharp sense of ironic humor instills the distinctive appeal in NO OTHER CHOICE. The film has an attractive cast of characters that add richness to the drama, including Miri, the strong wife who finds herself facing a crisis; Sun-chul, line manager at the highly successful Moon Paper, Man-su’s aspiration; Bummo and Sijo, job seekers who compete with Man-su for open positions; and Bummo’s wife Ara. With dramatic developments that oscillate between tension and release, sensuous mise-en-scène and meticulous directing, added with black comedy, NO OTHER CHOICE is a truly original film that will captivate audiences in Korea and around the world.

THE CHARACTERS

Man-su, a job seeker who starts his very own war. Miri, who grows stronger in the face of crisis. From objects of envy to potential rivals and unexpected disruptors, a host of compelling characters breathe life into the drama.
NO OTHER CHOICE creates unexpected tension and fun through its colorful cast of characters and the relationships that develop between them.

After devoting his whole life to his job, Man-su is tossed out “like an old pair of shoes”. While working part-time at a retail store, Man-su secretly prepares to launch his own war when cornered to lose even the family home he is so attached to. He draws up meticulous plans and starts to put them into action, but the clumsy side of Man-su that emerges in the process becomes a source of ironic humor. Man-su, who once was full of satisfaction and pride in life, gradually starts to transform due to the inevitable anxiety of being unemployed, leaving the audience with mixed feelings because it’s the kind of story that could happen to any of us.

Man-su's wife Miri has a positive nature and comforts her husband with a bright face when he is suddenly fired, but she also rationally deals with the reality of her family's declining fortunes. A woman who grows stronger in times of crisis, Miri breathes dramatic life into the story and continues the lineage of captivating female characters in director PARK Chan-wook's works.

Line manager at the most successful paper company in the industry, Sun-chul is an object of envy to Man-su. The cheerful yet sensitive Sun-chul adds an unpredictable vein to the story with his ever-changing appearance. Bummo, a veteran of the paper industry and a potential competitor to Man-su, is desperate to get rehired, but when things don’t go his way in his job search, he spends his days in a helpless stupor. Ara, his wife who feels deeply conflicted about what he has become, is a theatre actress with overflowing emotions, and she misses the husband she once loved. This couple, who gaze at each other affectionately while reminiscing about their days in the past, but soon quarrel, leave a strong impression with their unique chemistry. A caring family man and another potential rival of Man-su, Sijo, works at a shoe store to earn a living after losing his job. The sight of Sijo trying so hard to please his customers that he becomes servile evokes a sad sense of pity.

In this way, the relationships between the characters, each with their own conflicting and entangled positions unfold in unexpected directions until the very end, further deepening the drama of NO OTHER CHOICE.