This publish comprises spoilers for “No Different Selection.”
Park Chan-wook opens “No Different Selection” with an idyllic snapshot of the nuclear household unit. Prosperous salaryman Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) lives along with his spouse and two kids in an attractive nation residence, replete with a lush greenhouse and a beautiful entrance yard. “I’ve acquired all of it,” Man-su muses, genuinely grateful to have all the things that almost all can solely dream of. However this cozy life-style is brutally ripped away from Man-su after he turns into a sufferer of company downsizing, the place none of his accomplishments (and a long time of arduous work) matter within the face of capitalism’s endless rat race. Given Park Chan-wook’s ability to craft intense, rousing drama (look no additional than his “Oldboy” or “Determination to Go away”), it is pure to anticipate an identical tone in “No Different Selection.” This South Korean thriller is rife with tragic pathos, but it is also morbidly funny and deeply absurd at each flip.
It is tempting to consider Man-su because the everyman, however his socio-economic standing (upper-middle class) turns into the crux of his more and more excessive motivations. After all, he’s a person wronged by a damaged system, callously discarded for no justified cause. However Man-su’s anxieties have little to do along with his lack of ability to place meals on the desk — his major concern is that his unemployment exposes him to social indignity. That is why the story calls for such drastic escalation: As quickly as Man-su clumsily plans to eradicate different promising candidates so he can safe a brand new job, Park Chan-wook interprets this desperation via astounding match cuts, transitions, and zooms. Each reflective floor turns into a mirror into one’s soul, and this deft visible mastery goes hand in hand with the farcical extremes of Man-su’s violently chaotic journey.
However how does “No Different Selection” obtain such rigorously choreographed chaos?
Absurdist pitch-black comedy defines No Different Selection’s satirical edge
A job isn’t only a job in a hyper-capitalist society. It is a supply of earnings that consumes a good portion of our time, which is why it is linked to our sense of dignity and private achievement. Such an financial system views unemployment as a private failing, however it additionally creates a job disaster by controlling the technique of manufacturing. We see this play out when Man-su fails to get one other job for months (regardless of his {qualifications}), and paper-making abruptly turns into a distinct segment, closely automated business.
As an alternative of difficult this troubling established order, Man-su finds grotesque methods to play into it, having constructed his identification on a system designed to activate staff like him (regardless of their financial aspirations). His justification is that he has “no different selection” — absolutely, in his thoughts, murdering different staff he perceives as threats is the one technique to reclaim his dignity. Park Chan-wook makes use of this moral absurdity to current us with an anti-hero who turns each crime into Looney Tunes-like shenanigans, the place Man-su awkwardly stalks his victims and improvises his serial kills. A very sensible (and brutal) sequence involving a drunken tooth extraction takes this sentiment to extremes.
These cases of exaggerated bodily comedy are hilarious, due to a taut script and Lee Byung-hun’s intricately layered efficiency. We’re by no means meant to root for him, however there’s, ahem, no different selection however to sympathize with somebody so terribly disturbed by his lack of ability to reclaim a way of life he is been accustomed to. The outcomes are unhinged, as Man-su should discard his humanity (and decency) to change into employed once more. This pointed satire feels substantial due to the movie’s spectacular visible language, which stuns us simply as a lot as Man-su’s escalating ethical chapter.
No Different Selection makes use of mirrored surfaces to escalate pressure and outline motives
In “Decision to Leave,” Park Chan-wook uses quick cuts/transitions to flit between different viewpoints, that are used to flesh out the movie’s central relationship. Texting overlays are additionally used to nice impact, juxtaposed towards the micro-expressions of individuals concerned in digital dialog. Equally, “No Different Selection” makes use of tablets, telephone screens, and toilet mirrors to gauge character motivation, which attain diabolical extremes with every passing minute.
For instance, we see Man-su’s ethical level of no return when a field containing his father’s gun is juxtaposed towards his determined, anxiety-riddled demeanor. Additionally, a homicide investigation unfolds at one level, throughout which the reflective floor of a laptop computer is used to change views and convey the unstated thought course of of each character. Such visible mastery might really feel like unfettered improvisation, however it’s the results of painstaking talent and precision.
This visible language feeds into the movie’s dense (albeit unsubtle) symbolism. In direction of the tip, Man-su inadvertently nourishes his beloved apple tree with corpses, signifying that his now-blooming profession and reinstated social standing come at a horrifying price. That is when the tragicomic nature of Man-su’s arc feels particularly bitter, because the movie dangles the concept that late-stage capitalism makes it straightforward for us to show a blind eye to the atrocities that form our actuality. Man-su is aware of his actions are improper, however it’s straightforward to push guilt or regret apart when barbecued eel is again on the menu once more. That is additionally why his spouse, Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin), stays silently complicit, as she realizes that the one technique to win a rigged sport is to simply accept ethical compromise as an inevitability.
“No Different Selection” is presently in restricted launch.
