Park Chan-wook takes a cutthroat economy literally in bloody, blistering satire No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook's satirical thriller adapts Donald E. Westlake into an angry bunch of morbid fun.
Photo: Neon
The latest film from Park Chan-wook, the auteur behind the kinetic Oldboy and sumptuous Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, is an adaptation of No Other Choice, based on Donald E. Westlake’s broad, bleakly capitalist novel The Ax, about the dark side of corporate downsizing, where the protagonist seeks to off his competition while fighting to re-secure his employment. Westlake’s narrative—of a paper mill executive who has been laid off, only to find himself in a literal war with others to hold onto one of the few and rapidly disappearing jobs available to apply for—is ripe for examination of broader topics such as globalization, automation, the decline of the nuclear family, and the ravages of a system designed to make the rich richer at the expense of the human chattel that traditionally grease the gears of modern society. It’s also a tale primed for the blackest of comic moments, as the hapless protagonist attempts to extinguish the competition just to keep his middle-class life intact.
This dire look at fighting for diminishing opportunities hits a little close to home, even as Park migrates the story to South Korea, and adds significant weight to the film using everything from the history of Japanese-Korean relations, the changing norms of the family unit, the expectations of the success of one’s children, and the feeling of deep connection to one’s mode of employment. With all this, the ingredients are very much in place for an acidic take on the underbelly of a social and economic system that wields loyalty as a weapon.Â
