Acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook returned to the Venice Film Festival and was greeted with a six-minute standing ovation for the twisted black comedy “No Other Choice.”
Adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s mystery novel “The Ax,” the story follows a middle-aged man named Man-soo (“Squid Game” star Lee Byung-hun) who goes to desperate lengths to gain employment after being unexpectedly fired from his position at a paper company that he’s held for 25 years. The ensemble cast includes Son Ye-jin (“Crash Landing on You”) Lee Sung-min (“Handsome Guys”), Yeom Hye-ran (“The Glory”), Cha Seung-won (“Believer 2”), Yoo Yeon-seok (“Hospital Playlist”) and Park Hee-soon (“The Policeman’s Lineage”).
Park, a luminary of Korean cinema, is famous for writing and directing “Oldboy,” “Thirst” and “The Handmaiden,” as well as producing “Snowpiercer.” He last appeared in competition at Venice with 2005’s “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.” Earlier in the day at the film’s official press conference, Park explained the reason it took 20 years for him to return to the Lido.
“There’s a very short answer, one word in fact,” Park quipped. “That’s money.”
Although he labored for two decades to get the proper budget to make “No Other Choice,” Park said he knew the film’s themes would remain relevant.
“We all harbor that deep fear of employment and security,” Park said through an interpreter. “I was able to work on this film for 20 years because no matter who I told over the two decades, they’d always relate and say, ‘It’s such a timely story.’ That gave me the confidence to know it’s a film that will eventually get made.”
Park recently made headlines because he and his writing partner Don McKellar were kicked out of the Writers Guild of America for violating union rules that forbade writing during the 2023 writers’ strike. Park has denied the claims that he worked on “The Sympathizer,” an HBO series based on the 2015 novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, while the industry was pencils-down. The WGA expulsion won’t affect his career; he’s still able to write, produce and direct movies and television shows across the globe.
“I have never violated any rules,” Park said in a statement. “I seriously considered appealing, but I ultimately decided not to appeal because I wanted to focus on ‘No Other Choice,’ which was in post-production in Korea at the time, and I couldn’t afford to spend as much time as the hearing on an appeal.”
After Venice, “No Other Choice” will open the Busan International Film Festival before playing at Toronto and New York film festivals. Then, Mubi will release the black comedy in theaters on an undetermined date. The company distributed Park’s last film “Decision to Leave,” which became the auteur’s highest-grossing movie in North America.
