Park Chan-wook is back, and he’s not playing nice. The Oldboy director’s latest film, No Other Choice, has dropped its first trailer, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from him. It’s bleak, stylish, and funny in that “should I really be laughing at this?” kind of way.
Based on Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, the film trades the book’s American corporate grind for the cutthroat business world of modern-day South Korea. Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game, I Saw the Devil) stars as Man Soo, a mild-mannered manager who loses his job at a paper merchant’s. In America, losing your job might just mean bad coffee and updating your LinkedIn profile, but as Man Soo chillingly narrates in the trailer: “In America, getting fired is called getting the axe. Do you know what we say in Korea? We say, ‘It’s your neck.’”
And he’s not kidding. Desperate to get ahead in the job market, Man Soo takes the most extreme “networking” approach imaginable by literally removing the competition. The trailer for No Other Choice cuts between him tapping his temples in what looks like a twisted prayer ritual, flashes of guns and knives, and someone plucking a single bullet from a seashore. Throw in police sirens, snakes, and a whole lot of nervous laughter from audiences, and you’ve got yourself a Park Chan-wook thriller through and through.
If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because The Ax was adapted before. Costa-Gavras directed his version back in 2005, but Park’s been itching to tackle this story for over a decade. He first started planning it just four years after that adaptation, though it took him until last year to finally shoot the film. Considering his busy schedule, with Decision to Leave winning him Best Director at Cannes in 2022 and his brief creative detour into American TV with HBO’s The Sympathizer, you can’t really blame him for the delay.
What makes this even more exciting is Park reuniting with Lee Byung-hun for the first time in over 20 years since Joint Security Area (2000) and Three… Extremes (2004). The cast also includes Cha Seung-won, Park Hee-soon, Yoon Ga-yi, and Son Ye-jin.
“LET’S GOO!!!” shouted one fan on X, while another wrote, “Woaah!! I’m stunned by this trailer only… K-Cinema finally is Coming Back.” Someone else simply declared, “Cinema is back.” The best reaction? “I didn’t understand a single word in that trailer but I still want to see it.”
The film is Park’s 12th feature and has already been picked up by Neon for US distribution, while Mubi will handle several other territories. It’s almost certain to premiere at the 82nd Venice Film Festival this September, putting it right in the middle of awards season chatter.
If you’ve seen the trailer for No Other Choice, you already know why. Park has built a career exploring moral corruption, guilt, and the uncomfortable link between violence and survival. No Other Choice looks set to continue that streak, and maybe even top it. The trailer doesn’t give away much, but it makes one thing clear: there will be murder, and someone will be investigating.
The film asks a simple question: How far would you go to land your dream job? Would you kill for it? Man Soo has an answer, and it’s probably not one you’re going to like.
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