‘No Other Choice’ Review: Park Chan-Wook’s Satirical Thriller is a Visual Delight That Sacrifices Its Edge to Slapstick

Think of No Other Choice (EOJJEOL SUGA EOPDA) As Something Akin To Kind Hearts and Coronets That trades the Edwardian English Aristocracy for the Contemporary Korean Industrial Job Market, and You’ll Have Some Idea of ​​the Tricky Tonal Balancing Act It Requests. WHICH MAKES IT SAD TO REPORT THAT PARK CHAN-WOOK STUMBLES ON Some Jarring Shifts. The Movie Remains the Work of A Master Craftsman With His Own Idiosyncratic Storytelling Signature, Thought The Pathos and Suspense of a Hardworking Family. Wacky Humor.

The Second Screen Adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s Novel The AX -Following Costa-Gavras’ 2005 French Version-is by no means without pleasures. Notable Among them Are Its Gorgeous Visual Crispness, Crazy Camera Angles and Exhilarating Zooms; ITS Two Apppeling Leads; Its AMUSING JABS AT CAPITALISM; and An inventing Ending Is Both A Victory Over the Cruelty of Corporate Redundancies and A Sobering ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE GRIM PROSPETS FOR HUMANS IN AN AUTOMATED WORKFORSE.

The Director Made His Name in The Early 2000s With Instant Cult Hits Like the Operatically Violent Revenge Fantasy Oldboy. But his intohoxyicating last two features, the sumptunk erotic period thriller The Handmaiden and the intricate neo-noir puzzle Decision to LeaveHave Seen His Unirming Control and Painstaping Attcture to Detail Sharpened in Elegant New Ways. That make the more Wayward style of the New Film a disappeintment, Particularly Given that is Been A 20-Year Dream Project for Park.

Still, Many of the Director’s Admirers Will Embrace The Broad Comedy and Slapstick Antics, Even If They Lessen The Stakes For A Protagonist Who’s Transforms Him Into the Clumsiest Killer in Homicide History. It’s Key to Park’s Handle on the Material that the Character Retains Much of His Innocence, Even After Getting Blood on His Hands.

Thought He’s Now Mist Widly Known As the Front Man on Squid GameLee Byung-Hun Was One of the Stars of the Director’s First Hit, Joint Security Area. He’s Ideally Cast Here As Man-Su, A Paper Mill Manager with 25 Years of Company Loyalty.

The Promising Set-Up Is a BirthaDay Celebration for His Wife Miri (Son Ye-Jin, Wonderful) in the Garden Out Front of Their Odd-Looking But Pictures. Charms). Man-Su Gathers Miri, Their Teen Son (Kim Woo-Se (Choi So-Yul) in a Group Hug Under A Sprinkling of Cherry Blossoms from The Tire Spreads oh. Golden Retrievers – I Mean Seriously Adorable – Get in on the affaction. I almost comically idyllic, which is Clearly Intended WHEN Man-Su Looks Up and Sighs with Gratitude, “I have it all,” and ”.

In a Cruel Joke, He Learns that the expensive eel on his Barbecue Sent by the Mill’s Management is like a Gold Watch Kiss-Off, In this Case Marking Involuntary Reterement. He arrives at work and spreads the grim news amng his team that the new American Owners have Indicated there Will Be Job Losses. One of Them Turns Out to Be Man-Su’s.

Park Mines Poignancy and Mordant Humor from A Support Group for Recently Unemployed Men, Where They Work on Their Emasculation Issues and Tell Themslves in Motivation Exercise Thotcises. While they Seek New Opportunities. But Despite a Pledge to HimSelf to Land A New Job in his Sector, He’s Stacking Cartons at A Big Box Store 13 MONTHS LATER.

Miri Is Pragmatic at Home, Cutting Down on Expenses – No More Netflix for the Kids or Tennis Lessons for Mom – and Putting the House on the Market, With Plans to MOV. She informs her Husband that with ForeClosure Only Three Months Away, It’s Their Only Way to Pay Off Their Debts and Stay Afloat. She Also Returns Part-Time to Her Dental Hygienist Job at A Practice WHERE Man-Su Suspects of the Handsome Dentist of Having Design on Her.

What most Lights a Fire Under Man-Su is the Thought of Loose of the Childhood Home Hem Worked Hard to Buy Back, A Sanctuary Standing on Land that Was on was Fither GreenHouse.

He gets a tip about a position that wound be perfect for him-aside from worksing Under Cocky Former Subordinate Choi Sun Cracyd the Japanese Market. The Interview Is A Disaster, His Disappointment Later Compounded WHEN HE RETURNS, BEGGING FOR WORK, AND IS HUMILIATED BY CHOI.

The Instinct to Want To Bump Off Choi and Replace of the Obnoxious Hotshot Comes Naturally, Thought It Occurs to Man-Su of In Inn The Order To Be Guaraned The Unone The Necessary Qualifications.

That comes down to just two. One is gu Bummo (Lee Sung-Min), Who Spends His Days Getting Pickled in Beer While His Theater Actress Wife Ara (Yeom Hye-Ran) Rails at Him for His Pathetic Surrender. She Concedes that her Husband is not to blame for loming his job, but his weakness in dealing with it earns her contempt. The Other Obstacle to Man-Su Being First in Line at Moon Paper Is Go Sijo (Chaseung-Won), A gentle-Natured Shoe Salesman Whote Remains in the Paper Industry.

Park’s Cartoonish Humor Notwithstanding, There’s Tenderness Toward Town Men, Who Were Invest in Their Jobs to Such A Degree That Being Kicked To The Curb Leaves Theme.

Reeling them in Proves Easy for Man-Su, with A fake Company Website and Promocial Video Helping Him to Weed Out The Serious Candidates. ICING TheM PRESS HARDER FOR The INEpt Wannabe Killer, Landing Him in Embarrassing Situations with Prewh Prelh Prews Stakeout Positions, Muddy Ground to Slip on Ansece.

Lee Handles The Physical Comedy with Endearing Awkwardness and Remains Firmly Planted in the Middle-Ground Between Self-Preservation and Murdorous Incent But the Mid-Section Plotting Gets A Bit Bonkers and the Emphasis on Laughs Tends to Neutralize the Thriller Aspect. The Film Gets Back on Track, However, with An Outcome Arrived at Via Unpredictable Swerves and Decisive Intervention from Miri to Fix Man-Suh’s BUNLED EFFORTS.

Park Dedicates the Film to Costa-Gavras, Who Held The Rights To The No No and Worked With The Korean Director in The Initial Development Stages, Wan It Was Planneda Canadian Actor-Writer-Director Don McKellar, Likely a Holdover from That Earlier Blueprint, Is One of Four Credited Screenwriters, WHICH MAY ALSO being a contribute

WHATEVER FLAWS THERE ARE IN THE EXECUATION, The FAKT REMAINS THAT EVEN A SUBPAR PARK CHAN-WOOK FILM HAS moreinging FOR IT THAN A Lot of Directors’ BEST WORK. And Those Dogs!