Ronit J

No Other Choice (2025) Synopsis:

After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.

No Other Choice (2025) Review:

I still remember that feeling of shock and awe when I watched Oldboy for the first time in 2012 at a film festival screening. The power of cinema makes itself apparent when moulded by the minds of few really creative individuals, and Park Chan-Wook is one of them. Be it his exceptionally thrilling Vengeance Trilogy, or his erotic historical psychogical thriller, The Handmaiden (2016), you’re bound to be blown away by nearly every aspect of his cinematic oeuvres. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a fan of Decision to Leave, but I was still excited to see No Other Choice. The premise and treatment hit a little too close to home, especially given India’s job market and unemployment rate. I made it a point not to read any reviews before watching the film because I wanted to enjoy it completely blind.

The film opens in a sort of anti-Paratise like scene, where this happy family is living its ideal life. Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is the perfect husband to Min-ri (Son Ye-jin) and loving father to his two kids, living in a big house with two dogs. The colours are vibrant. The flowers in his garden are in full bloom. Almost feverishly perfect, they’re even talking about how good they have it. You just know everything is on the verge of collapsing. And in the immediate next scene, it does. Man-su loses his job at the paper factory, to which he’s dedicated 25 years of his life. Automation is killing the need for skilled labour, and highly qualified individuals are forced to take up menial jobs. But most of them are on the verge of bankruptcy and ruin, completely disrupting everyone’s lives.

Visual Brilliance, Dark Absurdity

While the opening scene is beautiful and picturesque, the vast majority of the film presents a bleak palette. The once blooming garden withers away over the course of the film, reflecting the family’s own slow downfall. The worst of this is them having to send their two golden retrievers to live with their in-laws because they can’t afford to feed them anymore. But bleak doesn’t mean bad. Bleak is bleak, and so is the film’s real story. The comedy only serves to soften the blow of the real tragedy that the film presents. Unemployment is no joke. It’s an even worse nightmare when you have a family to feed.

Fittingly enough, the only time the colours pop are in moments of emotional highs—particularly when Man-su succeeds in his dark plans. Almost as if the film is teasing us with potential success, only to follow it up with gruesome inhumanity.

There isn’t a single dull moment in the film. From the emotional highs of a perfect life, to the daunting terror of bankruptcy, debt and homelessness, to even the darkly humorous quest that Man-su embarks on to improve his odds of converting a job interview, No Other Choice will undoubtedly keep you on the edge of your seat for the entirety of its duration.

Except the prologue, our characters get no moments of respite at all. If it isn’t financial troubles, it’s the emotional turmoil resulting from their desperate scrambles to keep afloat. It’s devastating, because it hits too close to home.

A Grim Look At Capitalistic Collateral

The film looks great. But that’s barely scratching the surface. More than the looks, its the absurd plot and narrative that make up for the meat of this bizarre comedy. Just think about it: a man who cannot find a job after being laid off goes around killing off his competition. Is that not some late-stage capitalistic brand of dystopia or what?

On the surface, it’s a dark story about a man trying to get a job. But, a simple task like finding work to feed yourself and your family should not be a life-and-death sport, no? Wrong! That’s the sad reality of our world today. With the advent of AI and mega corporations’ diminishing returns, it’s the workers that end up being collateral. And when a system so dehumanises a person, is it really a shock to see them resort to barbarism?

Unlike mass films, No Other Choice does not shy away from showing us the worst of humanity. It’s not like our characters are bad people. They’re just regular folks trying to survive in an increasingly difficult world. As their finances deplete, so does their morality. Murder and theft are of course bad, but isn’t the system that forces such extreme acts purely to survive not worse? We see Man-su’s cruel actions with pity and humour, knowing there’s no point in criticising the corporations that layoff their workers without a thought. Even when Man-su ends up killing innocents, you don’t question why he’s doing it. Instead, the film forces you to ask what forces him to take such extreme steps?

No Other Choice (2025) Ending Explained (SPOILERS)

Man-su visits Seon-chul’s (Park Hee-soon) and pretends to drink with him. Seon-chul reveals that he needs another manager. Meanwhile, Mi-ri discovers Si-jo’s body buried under the apple tree. She calls Man-su only to find him on the verge of burying Seon-chul. They are at war and they have to work as a unit. Man-su kills Seon-chul, then makes it look like he choked on his own vomit after drinking. When he returns, Mi-ri is cold to him. But she also lies to their son claiming that the body buried under the tree was a pig’s. Later, Man-su interviews for and gets Seon-chul’s job.

The detectives visit Man-su, revealing that Geom-mo (Lee Sung-min) and Si-jo (Cha Seung-won) were former colleagues. A-ra (Yeom Hye-ran) lied to the detectives that Geom-mo was suicidal, and might be behind Si-jo’s disappearance too. Acquitted of suspicion, Man-su is free. He has earned enough money to revive his home’s condition and bring back his two dogs. Mi-ri witnesses Ri-one play the cello, which only happens now because the dogs are back home. Man-su goes to work, where he is the sole human amidst machines.

The ending, despite seeming happy, is actually a cruel one if you think about it. Man-su’s relationship with Mi-ri is forever tainted by the knowledge of his actions. And, his actions haven’t led to him getting permanent employment. He has a job for now, but there’s no telling when the situation might change. The system is cruel, and it makes humans behave inhumanly, rewarding the worst of us with temporary respite and vain luxuries.

Is No Other Choice (2025) worth watching?

Yes. I haven’t read the book (The Axe) or Costa Gavras’ adaptation of the same, so I can’t comment about those. However, Park Chan-Wook’s version delivers exactly what I expected from the South Korean auteur. It was funny. It was gut-wrenching and uncomfortable at times. But, most importantly, it got very very real.

In Conclusion:

No Other Choice (2025) is an absurdly brilliant black comedy that will leave you breathless laughing, then slap you with some very dark nuggets of reality.

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