No Other Choice (OmU) im Freiluftkino Insel @ Atelier Gardens

In the organizer's words:

R.: Park Chan-wook , D.: Lee Byung-hun, 손예진, 박희순, 이성민, 염혜란, 차승원, 김우승, 최소율, Oh Dal-su, 이석형
KR, FR 2025 , 139 min.

The middle class fears nothing more than the loss of what they have: work, status, security. In cinema, this fear has long been the driving force behind major social dramas - from Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" to Radu Jude's "Kontinental '25". Park Chan-wook also addresses this fear in "No Other Choice". He adapts Donald E. Westlake's novel "The Axe", which Costa-Gavras once filmed - but transplants the story to the hypermodern working world of South Korea, a country that vibrates like no other between the pressure to succeed and digital upheaval.
Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has been a paper specialist for 25 years. But when his factory switches to AI automation, he loses everything overnight: job, status, self-worth. What begins as a social study soon veers into the terrain that Park is best at: the thriller as a moral battlefield. Man-su develops a plan to murder all his competitors for a new job - because every competitor less means one more chance.

Park Chan-wook stages this macabre career strategy with crystal-clear images and grotesque humor. As in his revenge trilogy, he questions guilt and honor - this time in the mirror of an unleashed job market. "No Other Choice" is more than just a contribution to South Korean social cinema: it is a bitter allegory of hypercapitalism, in which patriarchal expectations and neoliberal logic work hand in hand. After "The Woman in the Mist" (to be seen at 14 Films 2022), this is the next big hit from exceptional director Park Chan-wook.