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Jobless Korean Man Kills Rivals to Secure Career in Dark Comedy
10 Oct
Summary
- Unemployed paper mill worker resorts to murder to find a new job
- Film based on American novel, adapted with a "new premise" by director
- Selected as South Korea's Oscar submission for Best International Feature
As of October 10, 2025, the South Korean black comedy "No Other Choice" is set to receive a limited theatrical release in the country ahead of a wider release in January. The film stars Lee Byung-hun as Yoo Man-soo, a family man who resorts to murder to secure a new job after being made redundant from his 25-year position as a health and safety officer at a paper mill in South Korea.
After several months of unemployment, Man-soo decides to take a radical approach to job-seeking by killing off his competition. The film is based on Donald Westlake's 1997 American novel "The Ax," which director Park Chan-wook says provided "a lot of room to develop a bitter sort of comedy." Park added a "new premise" in which Man-soo shares similarities with each of his victims, "like he's facing a mirror" and "destroying himself" while killing others.
