At the Venice Film Festival, Park Chan-wook's brand-new movie No Other Choice made a spectacular debut and immediately won over both reviewers and viewers.
The darkly comic thriller opened to a rare perfect 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, thrusting it straight into awards conversations and sparking comparisons to Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite — no small feat.
While those scores may shift as more reviews come in, the early buzz has firmly positioned it as one of the festival’s most talked-about titles.
The story follows Man-su, a laid-off paper company manager played by Lee Byung-hun, who finds himself pushed to the edge and beyond, taking drastic — and deadly — steps to get his old job back.
The film Draws inspiration from Donald E. Westlake's The Axe and looks deeply into themes of corporate indifference, job insecurity, and economic pressure with high satire with real-world urgency. Son Ye-jin co-stars, and together the leads bring a potent mix of intensity and dark humour to the screen.
Park's skilful direction and tonal accuracy have received high appreciation from critics. He is renowned for his ability to combine style and edge, and No Other Choice is no different.
The BBC gave it five stars, calling it “deliriously entertaining” and “simultaneously hilarious and profoundly humane.” Variety was equally impressed, calling it a “dazzling murder comedy” and a “masterclass in controlled chaos,” adding that Park continues to prove why he’s one of the most graceful filmmakers working today.
Screen Daily also highlighted the film’s emotional core, noting its “blend of extreme humour with a heartfelt inquiry into long-term unemployment and corporate cruelty.” They even warned, “we could all be Man-su,” as the effects of AI and automation loom ever larger in our working lives.
With its perfect early score, awards buzz is building fast. No Other Choice is already being named as a strong contender for the Golden Lion, and even an early Oscar hopeful. As one critic aptly put it, the Academy may have “no other choice” but to finally give Park Chan-wook his due.
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