"Paper cuts are the worst. In "No Other Choice," a new comic thriller from the South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, You Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a longtime employee at a pulp manufacturer called Solar Paper, is one of many unceremoniously laid off after Americans take over the company. Months later, with his job search going nowhere, Man-su and his wife, Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin), are forced to economize."
"Unlike the shifty protagonists of Laurent Cantet's " Time Out" (2002) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's " Tokyo Sonata" (2009), Man-su, at least, does not try to hide his termination from his loved ones. Will he patiently keep seeking out jobs, like the Finnish tram driver cut loose in Aki Kaurismäki's "Drifting Clouds" (1998)?"
You Man-su, a longtime Solar Paper employee, is unceremoniously laid off after an American takeover. Job seeking stalls and his family tightens finances: his wife finds part-time dental work, their dogs go to her parents, furniture is sold, Netflix is canceled and their children's future is jeopardized. When their house is put on the market, Man-su snaps and decides decisive action is necessary. He plots to murder a rival, Choi Sun-chul, hoping to secure a line-manager position at another paper company. Removing that rival proves insufficient and the response escalates beyond a personal grievance.
Read at The New Yorker
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