"I find it fascinating that in Korean culture, there's a built-in "bare minimum" for sadness; there's a linearity to anguish and grief that's embedded in the language itself. I thought about this concept while watching director Park Chan-wook's latest, " No Other Choice," an acerbic and farcical black comedy made for this era of mass layoffs, quiet quitting, and a crumbling job market."
"Lee Byung-hun, in a welcome change from the action-hero roles he's best known for to Western audiences, plays the well-meaning and loyal Man-su, a longtime employee of the paper company Solar Paper. When he is unceremoniously fired from his job ("You Americans say that to be fired is to be 'axed?' [In Korea we say] off with your head!" he says, highlighting cultural differences in how one's vocation is intimately tied to one's self-worth), his sense of identity crumbles."
Sam-nyun-sang mandates a three-year mourning period during which adult children traditionally lived near a deceased father's burial site to repay parental care during early childhood. The practice establishes a cultural minimum for grief and frames sadness with linear expectations. Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice follows Man-su, a loyal longtime employee who is abruptly fired and whose identity collapses when he can no longer provide for his family. Man-su's humiliation and financial insecurity drive him to plot eliminating competing job applicants, choosing violence against peers rather than confronting exploitative systems or seeking community alternatives. The film situates individual despair within broader economic precarity such as mass layoffs, quiet quitting, and a crumbling job market.
Read at Roger Ebert
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