I really wanted to love No Other Choice. Like, I really, really wanted to love it. Park Chan-Wook is iconic. Lee Byung-Hun is iconic. Son Ye-Jin is iconic. And that is no question here. There is no doubting that Park Chan-Wook is an absolute master of his craft. He is fantastic at telling dark, comedic, poignant stories. However, I left the film excited by the swing, but slightly unsatisfied with the play.

No Other Choice is a dark satire exploring the grind of unemployment, capitalism and very toxic masculinity. Byung-Hun absolutely crushes (as expected) as Man-Soo, a very committed paper company employee who is suddenly let go in a wave of company cuts. Prior to this unexpected firing, his life is cookie cutter perfect - he has a gorgeous home, a doting wife, two kids, two dogs, and all the BBQ eel one could dream of. A capitalist's dream.

This all comes crashing down, when the film then expertly deconstructs this dream upon Man-Soo's unemployment. Man-Soo is then faced with the other side of capitalism (the one most of us experience). He is thrust into the quintessential capitalist hellscape - dead-end jobs, cyclical applications and rejections, and the crushing weight of a system designed to keep you down. Just a day in the life of living under capitalism, right? Desperate, Man-Soo hatches an unexpected devious (and bloody) plan to become employed at a lucrative paper company, by "eliminating" his competition.

The film had great comedic moments that mostly landed - whether that's through the intentionally ridiculous commitment of the male characters to patriarchal breadwinning or defining their entire lives by their job. The acting was top tier - Byung-Hun and Ye-Jin were effortlessly able to oscillate between over-the-top comedy, and deep emotional beats. However, I found that the run time really dragged - I loved the concepts presented, but then felt that some of the moments outstayed their welcome. The mise-en-scène was beautifully composed, but the plot felt less and less gripping as time went on. These pacing challenges made the films big moments less impactful and made me less engaged as a viewer.

Despite the fact that I did not love the film as much as I had hoped, there is a lot that it does that I appreciate. A film that critiques capitalism and seeks to take a bold and courageous swing is always a win in my book. And Chan-Wook did just that.

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