{"id":187089,"date":"2025-08-30T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T10:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/187089\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T10:39:09","slug":"reviews-of-park-chan-wooks-new-film-are-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/187089\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews Of Park Chan-Wook’s New Film Are In"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe reviews are rolling in for Park Chan-wook<\/a>\u2018s latest, No Other Choice<\/a>, which debuted this evening at the Venice<\/a> Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tLoosely based on the novel\u00a0The Ax\u00a0by Donald E. Westlake,\u00a0No Other Choice\u00a0follows a middle-aged man named Man-su who embarks on a determined job hunt after being unexpectedly fired from the paper company that he worked for 25 years. Neon has domestic rights and Mubi has a host of international territories.<\/p>\n

\n\tPark directed from a script written with Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar and Jahye Lee. Lee Byung-hun (I Saw the Devil) and Son Yejin (The Last Princess) lead a cast that also includes Park Hee-soon (My Name), Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North), Yeom Hye-ran (The Glory), Cha Seung-won (Believer) and Yoo Yeon-seok (Mr. Sunshine).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is probably the best reviewed movie of the festival so far, with most critics swooning.<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline\u2019s Damon Wise says the \u201cjet-black comedy\u201d showcases lead\u00a0Lee Byung-hun<\/a>\u00a0\u201cin his most revelatory role to date\u201d: \u201cWe always knew Lee could do action, but here he proves his worth as a comedy natural, a surprise slapstick master whose presence is an anarchic fusion of Mads Mikkelsen and Buster Keaton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cIt loses some steam towards the end, indulging the trend for multiple endings that Korean cinema has never quite gotten over, and it isn\u2019t quite as satisfying as his majestic, perverse 2022 thriller\u00a0Decision to Leave\u00a0(which was inexplicably snubbed by the Academy that year). It is, however, fantastic fun, an endlessly surprising ensemble piece that\u2019s best approached cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTime Out gives the film five stars out of five, trumpeting: \u201cWith humour blacker than black bean noodles, the film is a masterful work of cinema which might well be Chan-wook\u2019s masterpiece. And given this is the man who directed\u00a0The Handmaiden\u00a0and\u00a0Snowpiercer\u00a0that\u2019s saying a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guardian gives the film four out of five stars, calling it a \u201csensational state-of-the-nation satire\u201d and \u201ccontinually surprising\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tAwardswatch gives the film a B+ score, saying Park Chan-wook reminds us why he\u2019s one of the best in the game\u201d: \u201cNo Other Choice\u00a0feels like a quintessentially Korean movie: nervous about what happens when the family structure breaks down, skeptical about American hegemony, still haunted by its damaging wars with the North and a failure to reach a common understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScreen International\u2019s review is behind a paywall but the trade calls the film \u201ca darkly comic treat\u201d, while Indiewire awards the film a lofty A- score, describing it as a \u201cbrilliant, bloody, and bleakly hilarious capitalism satire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNext Best Picture also raved about the movie: \u201cAll hail Park Chan-wook! Film fans know that he\u2019s a master of the form, and with his latest work, the stupendous No Other Choice, he successfully defends his title as the most creative filmmaker alive. To watch one of his films is to marvel at the ingenious abilities of the right brain; he could probably make a household cleaner commercial thrillingly cinematic. No Other Choice blends mismatched tones and genre hallmarks in a way that\u2019s typical for Park and yet remains invigorating, leading to a ridiculous look at what happens when the system pushes a person to the very edge of desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFickfeast wrote: \u201cThis wicked tale is hilarious, heartfelt, and horrifying in equal measure.\u00a0No Other Choice\u00a0leaves you with simply that. No other choice than to catch Park Chan-wook\u2019s latest magnum opus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers included Park and Back Jisun of Moho Film, as well as Mich\u00e8le Ray Gavras and Alexandre Gavras of KG Productions. Miky Lee exec produced for CJ Group, and CJ ENM financed the project, which is currently in post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reviews are rolling in for Park Chan-wook\u2018s latest, No Other Choice, which debuted this evening at the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,104792,80008,67,132,68,9176,30989],"class_list":{"0":"post-187089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-no-other-choice","10":"tag-park-chan-wook","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-venice","15":"tag-venice-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115117291272105525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}