“No Other Choice scored three Golden Globe nominations Monday morning, including best picture, musical or comedy; best picture, non-English language; and best actor in a musical or comedy for Lee Byung-Hun’s performance. Legendary Korean director Park Chan-wook helmed the project, which took him more than 20 years to make. “I’ve always prioritized this project as”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Legendary Korean director Park Chan-wook helmed the project, which took him more than 20 years to make. “I’ve always prioritized this project as a candidate for my next project in between my other films, and it only happened to become possible at this point in my career,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Monday morning Zoom call.
“It specifically happened when I decided to change the project from an American film — which I had originally envisioned — to a Korean film, so I didn’t necessarily choose to make it at this time specifically. But thanks to having developed it recently, I was able to include the commentary about AI in the movie,” he says. “I’m glad that it worked out that way.”
Park’s long and impressive career certainly speaks for itself. Shockingly, Monday’s nomination marks his first major US awards recognition. “I feel especially great about having been nominated this time because a lot of my films in the past have been categorized as violent or dark or erotic with a lot of nudity, so it would usually fall into something like a crime thriller,” he explains. “To be nominated in the comedy, musical category this year, it was very fun for me because it felt as if I’m being redefined as a director. The truth is I’ve always felt that my movies all had a sense of dark humor.”
The director humbly notes that the best part of Monday’s nominations was not the film’s but that of his lead actor. “If I had the choice to choose one nomination for the film, I would definitely have chosen Byung-Hun over me getting nominated because he is very much qualified for that,” Park says.
“He’s getting the recognition that’s long been overdue because he’s already been in so many great projects. Especially in this film, I think out of all my films and out of all of his films as well, he really takes up the majority of the screen time in this movie. [He] basically just carries the film on his back by himself,” he says. “In moments where he’s on the screen with other supporting actors, it all feels very harmonious. In those moments, the other actors feel like co-leads with [him]. I think the best kind of performance is one where you give and receive. That demonstrates that he has perfectly perfected the craft.”
While Park admits that the reason this movie ended up finally being made was when he switched from an American film to a Korean film, he says the state of Korean films is cause for concern to him. “Recently, I think the state of Korean films has been deeply concerning because audiences have not returned to the theater since the pandemic and because audiences aren’t returning, there isn’t enough investment going around in the industry,” he explains.
The director says limited investment in projects leads to a green-lighting of similar projects that “rely on conventions,” thus creating a cycle of viewers not wanting to return to theaters even more. “As grateful as I am for these Golden Globe nominations, when I think about the reality of the Korean film industry right now, it almost feels like a rock is pressing my heart,” he says.
As a creative, however, Park suggests the way to combat is to push for originality. “This is actually the best time to be creating more unique and bold movies, and I think the industry needs to get rid of the idea that they have to make movies that necessarily appeal to everybody,” the director explains. “If there’s a movie that only targets a smaller piece of the audience market, I think if the film can clearly appeal to that audience and has a distinct taste, that would help our industry much more.”
Adds Park of another way to draw Korean audiences to the theater: “We need to make movies that feel as if they need to be watched in a theater. That doesn’t necessarily mean a big action piece movie. Including those genres, we need to create images and sound qualities that can’t be enjoyed the same way at home and that need to be enjoyed in a theater.”