REVIEW: NO OTHER CHOICE
No Other Choice had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2025, with a theatrical release in South Korea on September 24, 2025. Most other countries like New Zealand are just getting it released now.
Although not having seen No Other Choice, I was sure it would be a shoe in for an Academy Award of some sort. The ratings and reviews would have you thinking that at least.
This is a generic outline of the movie:
“No Other Choice (2025) is a dark satirical thriller following Man-su, a dedicated 25-year employee at Solar Paper who, after being laid off following an American takeover, descends into violence. Desperate to maintain his middle-class status and avoid losing his home, Man-su murders competitors for new jobs, ultimately mirroring the ruthless corporate system that discarded him.”
That’s the one I am going to use for this because anything I came up with either sounded drab or gave away plot points.
Out of all the foreign films I have seen this year this was by far my favourite. I connected with it straight away and was hooked right until the end. I instantly related to the main character Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) as I have had to hunt for 2 different jobs in the past 18 months and it is tough out there. But when he starts making poor choices and turns to violence, the relatability ended, it was hard to see how one could lead down this path. The protagonist turned into the antagonist making one poor choice after another, presumably because he had “no other choice” which was never in fact true but comes up in conversation throughout the movie like it’s some kind of mass delusion. It’s like an excuse to make up for bad behaviour.
All of this bad behaviour is a mirror of capitalism itself. I just watched a YouTube video of someone breaking down the symbolism of No Other Choice for 20mins which was very interesting, but don’t expect me to do that here lol. There is a lot to unpack and process afterwards but that is an individual experience to have after watching the film.
Despite all of this I still couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for the disbelief of what was happening. The story and characters become more complicated and it’s enthralling to watch. It’s a bit like Marty Supreme in the fact that not many characters in this movie were “good” characters, most were flawed and made poor decisions.
There were some side plots I enjoyed. The gifted daughter who is apparently a prodigy Cello player but never plays in front of her parents so they are unaware but kept getting told by tutors that she is and they need to fork out more money for better lessons/instruments. This does pay off at the end and I won’t spoil it except for, pay attention to the daughters wallpaper.
I feel this film really needs a second watch for me to take in the details enough to give it a decent review so that’s what I will do. Plus I am kinda itching to see it again, which is always a sign of a great movie right?
This is Park Chan-Wook’s 12th movie too and you can see it in his work. Checkout the movie marathon here to watch him grow as a director.
Anyway, to wrap up, this felt like an American film. If you are put off foreign films, give this one a try, it might hit closer to home than you think.
7.5/10
