No Other Choice


No Other Choice is a 2025 South Korean black comedy thriller film co-written, produced, and directed by Park Chan-wook. Based on The Ax by Donald Westlake, the film stars Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, and Cha Seung-won. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, after the 2005 French-language feature The Axe directed by Costa-Gavras, to whom No Other Choice is dedicated in the closing credits. The film follows a desperate paper industry expert who decides to kill off his competition to be assured of the job he seeks to maintain his way of life.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on 29 August 2025, where it garnered critical acclaim. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. It was also selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist, but was not nominated.
No Other Choice had its domestic premiere as the opening film of the 30th Busan International Film Festival on 17 September, followed by its theatrical release in South Korea on 24 September by CJ Entertainment.

Plot

Man-su is an award-winning veteran employee of papermaking company Solar Paper. Well-paid, he has purchased his childhood home, where he lives happily in luxury with his homemaker wife Mi-ri and their two children - Mi-ri's teenage son from a previous marriage Si-one, and their young daughter Ri-one, an asocial neurodivergent cello prodigy. However, Americans buy out Solar Paper and fire many employees, including a devastated Man-su after he objects to the downsizing his subordinates would face. After informing his family, he vows to resume papermaking within three months.
Three months later, Man-su does low-paying retail work due to unsuccessful papermaking job applications. His family has minimized their spending, including rehoming their two dogs to Mi-ri's parents, to Ri-one's distress. Ri-one's cello teacher recommends Ri-one for expensive advanced classes. Unable to pay the mortgage, the family risks losing Man-su's beloved home to buyers; likely the parents of Si-one's best friend, Geon-ho. Mi-ri starts working as a dental assistant to suave male dentist Jin-ho. Man-su suffers a toothache that he ignores.
When trying to join the company Moon Paper, Man-su is humiliated by manager Seon-chul. Wanting his job, Man-su nearly kills Seon-chul using a potted plant but abandons the attempt when he realises killing Seon-chul will not matter unless he is the best candidate to replace him. Man-su buys a fake advertisement to identify his papermaking job competitors. Receiving job applications, Man-su identifies two men whose credentials exceed his own: Beom-mo and Si-jo. Man-su retrieves his father's Vietnam War gun, deciding to kill Seon-chul, Beom-mo, and Si-jo.
Man-su begins spying on unemployed drunkard Beom-mo and plans the murder-attempt. He suffers a snakebite and is saved by Beom-mo's dissatisfied wife, A-ra. Man-su and Beom-mo separately discover A-ra's infidelity. Man-su confronts Beom-mo at gunpoint, with Beom-mo mistaking Man-su as A-ra's lover. Man-su, Beom-mo, and A-ra struggle over Man-su's gun. A-ra shoots Beom-mo dead, and Man-su narrowly escapes. Man-su arrives late to a costumed dance party, where he watches Mi-ri dance with Jin-ho as Man-su was late. Angered, Man-su returns to Beom-mo's residence, where A-ra and her lover have buried Beom-mo and the gun. Man-su retrieves the gun. Man-su and Mi-ri accuse each other of infidelity before reconciling.
Man-su visits Si-jo, who sells shoes and speaks of his young daughter. Man-su tricks Si-jo into staying late at the shoe store, and then pretends to have car trouble on the highway where Si-jo passes to go home. After Si-jo stops to help, Man-su reluctantly shoots him dead, hiding his corpse in Man-su's car. Meanwhile, Si-one and Geon-ho steal iPhones from Geon-ho's father's store to resell, but the police arrest them. Man-su and Mi-ri blackmail Geon-ho's father, who had used the store for his own infidelity, into having Geon-ho confess that he is the main culprit. Detectives visit Man-su to warn him of Beom-mo and Si-jo's disappearances, which police linked to their common circumstances. Si-one witnesses Man-su trying to dismember Si-jo's corpse with a chainsaw. Unable to do so, Man-su buries the corpse in his garden, alongside Si-one's stolen iPhones, and plants an apple tree.
Man-su visits Seon-chul's home to befriend him. While plying Seon-chul with alcohol, Man-su is forced to break his own sobriety, leading Man-su to forcefully extract his cavity-filled tooth. Si-one confesses his concerns about the body to Mi-ri, and begins having night terrors about the sound of the chainsaw. Mi-ri digs up the apple tree to find Si-jo's corpse, and calls Man-su with her concerns. Determined to protect his family, Man-su refuses to change his path. He then suffocates Seon-chul and makes it seem that a drunk Seon-chul choked to death on his own vomit. Mi-ri tells Si-one that Man-su dismembered a pig and buried it to nourish the apple tree.
Moon Paper decides to hire Man-su to replace Seon-chul. This allows the family to keep their home and reunite with their dogs, reducing Ri-one's antisocial behavior. The detectives visit Man-su, revealing that A-ra has implicated Beom-mo as a gun-owner and potentially Si-jo's murderer, thus lifting suspicion off Man-su. Mi-ri and Si-one hear Ri-one playing her cello to the dogs. At work, Man-su celebrates alone in a modern paper mill run by machines instead of workers.

Cast

  • Lee Byung-hun as Yoo Man-su, Mi-ri's husband and Si-one and Ri-one's father, who is a paper industry expert who is struggling to find employment
  • Son Ye-jin as Lee Mi-ri, Man-su's wife and Si-one and Ri-one's mother, who works as a dental assistant
  • Park Hee-soon as Choi Seon-chul, Man-su's third target and the divorced line manager of Papyrus Paper who also is an influencer in social media
  • Lee Sung-min as Goo Beom-mo, Man-su's first target and another paper expert who is also struggling to find a job
  • Yeom Hye-ran as Lee A-ra, Beom-mo's frustrated and unfaithful wife and a struggling veteran actress
  • Cha Seung-won as Ko Si-jo, Man-su's second target who works at a shoe-store to provide for his family
  • Yoo Yeon-seok as Oh Jin-ho, a dentist and employer of Mi-ri

    Production

Development

During the 14th Busan International Film Festival in 2009, it was announced that Park would remake Costa-Gavras's 2005 film The Axe. Park would later clarify that he had read Donald Westlake's 1997 novel The Ax upon which the film was based and decided to adapt it prior to knowing about Costa-Gavras's film. However, the project was delayed when Park received the screenplay for his 2012 film Stoker. In 2012, Park said he planned to make the film his next project but it still needed "more work on the casting and attracting investors".
During a live discussion with Costa-Gavras at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019, Park told audiences that he was still working on his adaptation of Westlake's novel. The film was described by Park as a "lifetime project" and that while he hadn't begun filming it yet, he wished "to make this film as my masterpiece". Gavras, who still held the rights to the book, had helped Park to develop the project. The film was set to be an English-language picture, with Don McKellar co-writing the script alongside Park.
Park's team told The Hollywood Reporter that he was approaching the project with the intent to "strengthen the moral dilemma in this story as much as possible, and he will increase the role of protagonist's wife".
At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Park stated that the project was still in development and followed "a heartbreaking story about a middle-aged man who lost a job, and now he needs to bring the bread to the table to feed his family. So, he struggles in the process of looking for a job in a specialized field, and he becomes a serial killer."
In March 2024, Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin were announced as the film's leads. Park and Son previously worked together in the 2016 movie The Truth Beneath, while Park collaborated with Lee on Joint Security Area. Park revealed that the film would now be set in Korea.
In August 2024, Park's frequent collaborators Lee Kyoung-mi and Lee Ja-hye were also announced as writers on the project.

Filming

began in August 2024. Filming wrapped in January 2025, lasting a total of five months.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack includes classical, Korean pop ballads, and American soul music. The opening credits and the first few minutes of the opening scene feature Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23. "Redpepper Dragonfly" by Cho Yong-pil, "Let's Walk On" by Kim Chang-wan, and "Le badinage" by Marin Marais feature in the film.

Release

In June 2025, Neon acquired North American distribution rights to No Other Choice, with Mubi taking rights to the film in the U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Spain, Turkey, the SAARC, Australia, New Zealand and the Benelux, the latter in association with its subsidiary Cinéart. According to CJ ENM and Moho Film, the film was pre-sold to over 200 countries around the world, including North America, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan. It surpasses the pre-sale record of 192 countries held by Park Chan-wook's 2022 film Decision to Leave.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on 29 August 2025. It had its North American premiere on 5 September 2025 at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where Lee Byung-hun received a Special Tribute Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards event. It was also screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2025 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, Sudbury, Ontario, on 17 September 2025.
It opened the 30th Busan International Film Festival on 17 September 2025, where both Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin were honoured with the "Actors' house", a special career retrospective. Theatrical release in South Korea followed on 24 September, by CJ Entertainment. The film was screened in IMAX theaters in South Korea, while in the United States, a one-night screening was held on 8 December.
On 4 October 2025, No Other Choice was presented in the "Galas & Special Presentations" and "Spotlight on Korea" sections at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival. It had its US premiere at the Main Slate of 2025 New York Film Festival on 12 October 2025. On 14 October, the film competed in the 58th Sitges Film Festival in the Oficial Fantàstic Competició section, vying for the various awards given in the section. It was presented in the Galas section of the 2025 BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2025, and would also be screened as a late addition to the Adelaide Film Festival on 24 October, and in the Special Presentations of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival on 25 October 2025.
It was screened in the Masters section of the 2025 Stockholm International Film Festival on 12 November 2025, and in the "From the Festivals – 2025" section of the 56th International Film Festival of India in November 2025.