Money and Masculinity in “No Other Choice”

From the moment the film began, I was taken aback by the subtle warmth, safety and bliss emanating from the visuals before me. Visuals that were in heavy contrast to the dark turn that the film would eventually take. “No Other Choice” directed by Park Chan-wook, tells the story of a father, Yoo Man-soo (played by Lee Byung-hun), and his family as he goes from having everything he desired to losing his job and watching it all slip away from him. This reality pushes him to unreasonable extremes. The story delves into how the weight of patriarchy, lifestyles under capitalism, and the unpredictability of work impact family.

A primary focus of this film was the exploration of the idea of a father as the “head of the home”. Prior to the loss of this job, Man-soo took comfort in being able to provide his family with a comfortable life. The first scene depicts him sharing a meal he had prepared—an eel sent by his company as thanks for his hard work, which would later prove to be a bad omen. After he lost his job, the idea that he wouldn’t be able to maintain the life his family was accustomed to drove him into misery and ultimately insanity. Although he goes to great lengths to reestablish himself as the family’s provider, the film’s humor and his wife’s pragmatic actions expose these efforts as a pathetic reaction to the societal expectations of masculinity. Although his reasoning for his actions was to protect his family, they ended up putting them in potentially more danger. His fixation on what he believed was the only solution, blinded him to the more practical options available. Options his wife, Yoo Mi-Ri (played by Son Ye-jin), ultimately pursued, becoming the true savior of the family by the film’s end.

One of my favorite aspects of “No Other Choice” was its humor. For me, the humor stood out when it amplified the changes in lifestyle that the family was facing. One of these was when Mi-Ri informed her children that they would be cancelling Netflix, to which they reacted with almost more disdain than they did about the news that they would have to sell the house. This emphasized how many aspects of life beyond basic necessities the family could no longer enjoy without money. Their passions and interests, like the young daughter’s talent for cello and the mother’s love of tennis, were compromised by their change in income, revealing that money affects not only one’s needs but also the pleasures and opportunities one can access. Man-soo was so preoccupied with returning life to exactly how it used to be that he refused to find other opportunities that wouldn’t afford him and his family the same life. As mentioned previously, the visuals of this film help to amplify the kind of serenity the family initially lived in, making the audience dwell on it too, and feel the same sense of loss when it was compromised.

The film also examines the growing uncertainty of employment today. With the drastic rise in technology, which the film also explores, job security is a pressing topic of discussion for many. The film’s dark humor was a unique and intriguing way to approach the topic. At the start of the film, Man-soo worked with a group of men who he was close to and was ready to advocate for. He passionately defended their value to the company, insisting it could not function without the workers who labor tirelessly to produce paper. He even states that if they were to leave, he would be deeply saddened to lose their friendship. However, by the end of the film, once his plan comes to fruition, he is informed that he will be working in isolation and supervising AI machines, which will replace the people who would have been his colleagues. Although this came as a shock to him, he took up the offer, turning back from everything he said initially. While the film doesn’t explicitly show what happened to the hundreds of workers who lost their jobs, it highlights the experiences of three men, including Man-soo, who faced the same fate. Though their stories are far from ideal, the exaggerated, hyperbolic portrayal allows the audience to find humor in them.

Chan-wook masterfully tackles these complex themes while keeping the audience laughing and instilling a sense of awe at the film’s visual beauty. It is undeniably a must-watch, and it will be exciting to see the continued acclaim it receives in the future.