‘No Other Choice’ and the Rewards of Sociopathy

It’s weird to say No Other Choice is of its moment, because it’s based on Donald Westlake’s 1997 horror novel, The Ax. Westlake could have penned the novel thirty years earlier without changing its core plot, which follows a desperate man violently hunting for a new job after being out of work. But the question of personal identity in a capitalist society has only become more immediate in the 28 years since the book was published. We now live in a world where tech titans openly brag about how their new technologies will eliminate jobs and hand-wave away how this will affect workers. For companies, such sociopathic behavior is not only encouraged but rewarded. You maximize profits by decreasing labor costs, and executives assuage their consciences by saying it’s very sad to cut jobs, but those affected will land on their feet. So why do employers get to behave in such a ruthless manner, and not the employees who exist in the same job market? Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of The Ax explores this conundrum by being a blackhearted blast with a fantastic lead performance from Lee Byung-hun, and shows how playing by “the rules” means shedding any pretense of morality. 

Man-su (Lee) is a successful veteran employee of a papermaking company, but he loses his job when Americans buy out his company. Out of work for over a year and only able to secure menial employment despite his constant hunt for a full-time job, his family is forced to do their own downsizing, sending their dogs to live with Man-su’s in-laws, and cutting other costs as they grapple with the constant threat of losing their home. When Man-su sees a job at a paper company he’d be perfect for, he realizes that the only way to fully secure the position is to kill his top competitors. He puts out a listing for a fake company to discover who would outshine his application, and when the resumés come in, he settles on three candidates who need to be eliminated if he’s going to secure employment. 

One of Park’s greatest skills is going as dark as possible without losing the human element. He’s a director who knows how to find comedy and frailty in the bleakness, and there are plenty of moments of No Other Choice that shine with a Coen-esque absurdity as Man-su, far from a hardened killer, attempts to work his way through the competition. For those who know Lee as the cold-blooded Front Man in Squid Game, they’ll be surprised to see him as a bumbling and inept assassin who may not want to kill the other men who are in similar circumstances, but feels he has, well, you know the film’s title.