The opening moments of No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook’s pitch-black new social satire, play almost like a dream: Man-su (Lee Byung Hun) has the perfect house, the perfect middle management job, a loving wife, two beautiful children, and two beautiful dogs. A crisp fall wind brings a shower of tiny leaves down on the lawn where he’s barbecuing a delicious cut of eel sent to him by his employers. The colors of the sky and the lush greenery surrounding his home feel brighter and more saturated than real life, almost like they’re artificial or imagined. But this is real, and Man-su could not be more grateful for it as he brings his family in for an embrace, declaring, “I’ve got it all.” Which, of course, means he’s in for a rude awakening when he’s suddenly fired from his longtime job as a paper manufacturing manager, putting him on the fast track to lose all that he’s worked so hard for.
Thus begins Park’s wild and winding new film, a social thriller that feels in many ways like a response to his friend and peer Bong Joon-ho’s landmark film Parasite. Instead of a piercing tale of the haves and have-nots, Park has constructed a light and zany farce (and his funniest movie in over two decades) about how easy it is for the haves to lose everything, and the desperate lengths they will go to in order to maintain their charmed lives. It makes for the most fun and wildly entertaining movie Park has had in years.
