by Helen Barlow
South Korea’s cinematic master Park Chan-wook may have had huge success with Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022), but that doesn’t mean getting his films greenlit has always been easy. He had been wanting to make his new film No Other Choice since 2006 and it has finally come to fruition, achieving three nominations in The Golden Globes for best film in a musical or comedy, for best actor for Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hung in the same category and for best film not in the English language. The film has been widely nominated in other awards and so far in the Oscars it has made the long list of 15 international films with the full list of nominations to be announced on January 22.
Still, in a year with so many strong foreign-language films, it’s unlikely that No Other Choice will score big – and certainly not in the fashion of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, which won four Oscars including for best film in 2020, and also focused on a family.
Interestingly, the first time I met Park had been for his producing role on Bong’s 2013 movie Snowpiercer, which marked Bong’s English-language debut and where Park had been a kind of mentor. In that same year, Park made his own English-language debut with Stoker starring Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman though the film was less favourably received.
Park had initially worked on making No Other Choice in English, but the plan fell apart. Ultimately, he rewrote the script with Jahye Lee as a Korean film. Enlisting Lee, Korea’s actor-of-the-moment, helped.
The film follows Lee’s Man-su who takes pride in his work at a paper company. When he is laid off after 25 years, he realises that obtaining the same job at another company requires him killing off his rivals. He has no other choice. The only problem is that he is an inept assassin, which makes the story surprisingly humorous.
The film is based on Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel, the satirical horror-thriller, The Ax, which was previously adapted by Costa-Gavras in a 2005 film.
No Other Choice premiered at The Venice Film Festival, where we spoke with Park and Lee.
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Have you ever been fired?
Park Chan-wook: “I will say that I have had moments where I’ve felt like there could be a potentially very long period of unemployment. You know, when you’re in between projects, when you’re waiting for your project to get funded. Sometimes I have that sense of, ‘Oh, my recent film is probably my last.’
Why did you want to make No Other Choice?
Park Chan-wook: “There have been certain projects that I’ve prepared and planned for and when I’ve had to postpone them, they kind of lose steam, and I forget about them. However, this is a story and film that survived, and there’s definitely a reason for that. Of course, over all of those years I created other films, but whatever time I had I would always return back to the story and work on the script. The reason for that is, when I read the original novel, I had this idea of how I would do it differently if I were creating it into a film. And that difference is that I want the family members, the wife and the son, to get an idea of what Man-su is doing, because he does all these heinous acts for his family. However, the paradox is that these actions actually drive him further away from his family. That is what I liked.”
Do you think Man-su is a monster or just a man under difficult circumstances?
Park Chan-wook: “I would say that he has, in a way, become a monster. Through the three murders, he has evolved as a killer, and that seems very ominous. And what’s even worse is that along the way, he actually recovers his confidence. He starts as a man who lost his job and his sense of masculinity and continues to grow as both a husband and as a father, the more skilled he becomes with his killings, almost proportionally so. And that is indeed a very ominous sign. I think that it’s a relief that he found a job at Moon Paper, because if he had failed to get that job, his next job definitely wouldn’t be lifting cargo at a department store. It’s going to be as a paid killer. However, that is the worst case scenario. I think if we were to believe in the goodness of the heart, because now he has found a new job, and he does feel a sense of guilt for what he did, there is hope, and I think that he will return to his good old self.”
When the Costa-Gavras’s movie came out, we thought that the work situation in the world was already terrible and couldn’t get worse. But after so many years, it seems to have become worse. Do you think that someday people will unite and do something about it, or that capitalism is always reinventing itself and fooling people that it’s okay – when it’s not?
Park Chan-wook: “I wish I had the answer to that, but unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of insight, nor am I a skilled fortune teller. This film is a story about pointing your gun at the wrong target, and the foolish labourer who does that. If he were smarter, he would act differently. Maybe he would form a union. Maybe he would sue the company, or maybe take part in an innovative, revolutionary group or organisation, and at least do something that is fundamental and righteous and point that gun toward the system. Unfortunately, he is not that smart nor courageous. He does have some courage, but then he uses that courage for the wrong things.”
Artificial intelligence has also become a threat for people in finding work, so now this film is even more important.
Park Chan-wook: “That’s right. Another foolishness I wanted to portray is that this is a competition that’s no longer between just humans, right? They are being driven out of their work places by AI, and that is why the final scene seems so empty, because all of these heinous crimes, all of these extreme actions, what was it all for? He managed to find this one job. But how long is that going to last? That is a question that I am asking there.”
Could you talk about the work culture in Korea, because it’s exceptionally tough and demanding. It’s like a 52-hour working week.
Park Chan-wook: “Yes, that is the max, so you can’t do more than 52 hours. Though conditions are becoming better and better, so I don’t think I can say that there is absolutely no hope. But it is quite tough, although it’s nothing compared to what the K-pop idols are doing.”
In many of your films, the home of your protagonist plays an important role as it does here with Man-su struggling to keep his beloved family home. What does the idea of home mean to you and has it changed in Korean society?
Park Chan-wook: “There’s a word in Korean that can mean both home and family at the same time. The physical space of the house is extremely important, so it’s almost as if Koreans obsess over owning a home because to rent a place to live and to have to constantly move is synonymous with insecurity. We can only feel a sense of security when the home is fully ours. So the house, the home, plays an important role in this film.”
It’s funny how in the film the family has to cancel Netflix to save money. Do you watch Squid Game? How do you explain its phenomenal success?
Park Chan-wook: “Yes, I’ve seen Squid Game. Obviously Lee Byung-hung is in it and I know the director very well as well as the other actors. I’ve already worked with Netflix before on Uprising, which I co-wrote, so it wasn’t a dig at Netflix. I put it in there to highlight how pitiful Man-su’s situation is. Especially, you can see it in his facial expression, his thinking, ‘Oh, I have come to this!’”
If you were asked in a job interview what your weakest point is, what would you say?
Park Chan-wook: “I don’t know what I’d answer. What I do know is that I would not make the mistake of trying to make a joke out of it, like Man-su did.”
Why?
Park Chan-wook: “Because he seems dumb, he looks stupid.”
With No Other Choice, were you trying to make a kind of answer to Parasite directed by your colleague Bong?
Park Chan-wook: “I decided to make this into a film all the way back in 2006 so that wouldn’t be the case.”
How was the success of Parasite received in Korea?
Park Chan-wook: “We all thought of it as the very peak of all of the history and tradition that Korean cinema has continued to establish throughout all of these years. All of us took great pride in it, and we all felt as if it was a success that we all achieved together. But quite unfortunately and coincidentally, immediately after that, the pandemic hit us. The theatres went straight down, more than in any other country around the world, and Korean cinema is continuing to suffer very badly. So, to experience the fall of the cinema after such a highly proud moment, is quite unfortunate, and honestly, all of us are quite perplexed now.”
Are you going to make more English-language films?
Park Chan-wook: “Yes, of course. And there are some that are currently underway. There are projects that have been a bit postponed because I couldn’t get them funded for a long time. But now that No Other Choice is out after so many years, I feel a sense of hope that they could also see the light of day. So, there are two English titles. The first one is a sci fi called Genocidal Organ and the second one is Brigands of Rattlecreek, which is a western.”
Lee, 55, and Park, 62, go back a long way to when they first worked together on 2000’s Joint Security Area which became a record-breaking box office hit in Korea and ensured a prosperous career for both. They only re-teamed once, for a segment of the 2004 anthology film Three… Extremes before working together on No Other Choice.
Have you stayed in touch?
Lee Byung-hung: “Yes, we’re very good friends. We talk to each other over meals and drinks, and sometimes he comes over to my home, so we’re very close colleagues. No Other Choice was brought up during our conversation 17 years ago when it was going to be an American film. So, I’m thrilled that it has come to be as a Korean film and that we could work together again.”
How did you relate to your character?
Lee Byung-hung: “I’m almost the opposite of Man-su, given how driven he is to get what he wants. I can’t imagine myself doing anything extreme. I’m not someone who’s that meticulous and plans everything so I can achieve something or get what I want. I’m not that kind of person.”
Has there ever been a moment in your life when you’ve said, ‘I have no other choice’?
Lee Byung-hung: “Don’t we all think that many times, even in one day? Man-su has no other choice and it comes from his passion, from his drive in that he has no other choice but to come up with this meticulous plan and to eliminate these people. But most of the time, I think we say ‘I had no other choice’ as a way of making an excuse to get out of something or give up on something. For me, it’s the latter case.”
You are very famous in South Korea. How is it to handle the fame? A lot of the K-pop stars have a lot of trouble.
Lee Byung-hung: “I don’t think I can really compare my experience to the hardships that K-pop stars go through, because I’ve been in this industry for a very long time and I know how to deal with such fame. So, I’m kind of immune to it. What I mean by I’m immune to it is that I’ve developed an attitude to accept it, so I feel that I’m more at ease with where I am right now in comparison to the fast-rising K-pop stars.”
What was your first reaction after reading the script?
Lee Byung-hung: “This was from Director Park and I was a little puzzled that there were so many comical elements to it. The film also had more of a commercial appeal in comparison to his previous films. So, the very first questions that I had to Director Park were ‘Did I read it right? Is this supposed to be funny? Is this your intention?’ And you know, I was just so excited, not only because I got to work with Director Park again, but this film is also phenomenal because it talks about social issues, but at the same time it makes you laugh. So, I was just so happy to come on board.”
There’s a lot of tension in the world right now and people repress so much. Did you like to go wild and a little bit unhinged in this role?
Lee Byung-hung: “I didn’t think about it that way, because this job for me is not about expressing my own emotions or doing something for my own pleasure. My responsibility is to be 100 per cent faithful to the intention of the creator and to the best of my ability to deliver that intention 100 per cent to the audience.”
You’ve worked in Hollywood a few times, like in 2016’s The Magnificent Seven. Which have been your best experiences there, and how different is it to working in Korea?
Lee Byung-hung: “My best experience in Hollywood was indeed in The Magnificent Seven, because I grew up watching Westerns since the age of four. My father was big fan of the Western genre, and he sat me down at least twice a week to watch a Western with him. So, I just couldn’t believe that I was in this film. I felt like I was in a dream. I also enjoyed RED 2 thanks to a brilliant cast with all the actors that I admire, and it was also the comic action genre that I like to work in. So that’s a very fond memory. In terms of the difference between Korean film production and Hollywood production, time has passed a little bit and right now the Korean production system is not that different to Hollywood’s. But at the time when I was in Hollywood, I realised that the pre-production was more extensive than in Korea. The preparation took a very long time and in Korea it’s the opposite. There are advantages to the American system, because if you prepare for something for so long, that means there will be a very small margin of error. But that could also mean that for the actors and the directors, if you come up with an idea on the spot, it’s very difficult for that idea to be translated to the final work, because you have to call the studio, and then the studio will have to give you permission, and it takes time. So, there’s less flexibility in that sense. But in Korea, there’s more room for that flexible kind of philosophy.”
What do you think of the phenomenon of Squid Game?
Lee Byung-hung: “It’s a very Korean story, a very extreme story. It’s almost like a story that you could read in a comic book. But the fact that the whole world is going mad over this crazy extreme story shows that the whole world agrees with you that there is something wrong going on with humanity, that we are losing humanity. I’m so happy that Squid Game has been received so well all around the world, but at the same time, like, wow, everybody agrees that there is something going on. So, I have very bittersweet and mixed feelings about it, to be honest.”
How do you account for the Korean Wave or Hallyu, which refers to the current global popularity of Korean pop culture, entertainment, music, TV and movies?
Lee Byung-hung: “I once asked a colleague I met in Hollywood, ‘Why do you like Korean TV shows and films so much?’ And he said, ‘you know, because I cannot anticipate what’s going to come up in the next scene, as everything unfolds so unexpectedly.’ And that’s what makes Korean content such fun to watch. Also, I think there was a definite contribution from the streaming services, because the fun that my friend was talking about is now being disseminated all at once on such services all around the world. So, I believe they have played a role in the spread of Hallyu.”
No Other Choice is in cinemas 15 January 2026
