Lee Byung-hun, Park Chan-wook: 'No Other Choice' links killer, victims
by Fred Topel · UPILOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Director Park Chan-wook and star Lee Byung-hun said the killer Lee plays in No Other Choice, in theaters Thursday, doesn't realize his victims are his own counterparts.
Lee plays Man-su, a supervisor laid off from a paper factory. When a position opens at another paper company, Man-su decides to murder the other candidates.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Lee, 55, said that the targets of Man-su's crime are simply versions of himself. They are all men laid off from previous jobs, struggling to get by.
"It's almost as if Man-su is looking at himself in a mirror," Lee said through a translator. "It really is. In the end, like he is eliminating himself."
Park, who adapted Donald Westlake's novel The Ax with Lee Kyoung-mi, Jahye Lee and Don McKellar, said he even added a scene to show Man-su's sympathy towards his victims.
His first target, Bummo (Lee Sung-Min) has an adulterous wife. Man-su calls Bummo's cell phone to steer him away from walking in on his wife and her lover.
"It's a really funny situation because he was going to kill this man anyway so it doesn't even matter whether Bummo finds out his wife is cheating on him," Park, 62, said through a translator. "He feels a very close association with this man which is why he felt this need to stop him from finding out."
No Other Choice refers to both the line the paper companies say when they lay off employees, and the men vying for the new job. Man-su says he has no other choice but to work in paper but Park disagrees.
"These men are very unwise in their decision to not dare starting life again in a new industry," Park said.
Still, Park recognized he might resist finding a different line of work if he could not make films anymore. He developed No Other Choice as a Hollywood film, but adapted it to Korea when Hollywood studios all passed.
"I think like Man-su, I would also be carrying around my resume and hope for my next opportunity to make my films," Park said. "Even if it takes many, many years, I will be still writing my screenplay and talking with producers."
As an actor, Lee also related to the uncertainty of the movie business. Lee said he has luckily not had to audition since his early Korean television roles in the '90s, but many of his friends still do.
"Many people in the film industry don't know when they'll work on the next project so this kind of limbo state can almost be seen as unemployment," Lee said. "I've been really lucky to always have my next project lined up."
In many of those projects, Lee has played expert assassins or methodical vigilantes such as The Good, The Bad, The Weird, I Saw the Devil, G.I. Joe and the TV series Squid Game. Man-su is not like those characters.
"I think one of the main entertaining factors of this movie is seeing a very ordinary person be able to execute these very extreme decisions," Lee said. "That is what fills the film with tension because he is full of folly and mistakes in trying to execute these murders."
The assassination of Bummo is the longest in the film, because Man-su does not know what he's doing. Park said his surveillance of Bummo also reflects how Bummo is really another version of Man-su.
"Preparing for Bummo's murder felt like an opportunity for Man-soo to objectively observe himself as well, including the part about his wife possibly cheating on him," Park said. "That's why I felt the need to dedicate the longest screen time to Man-soo's first mission."
Lee said watching Bummo only makes it harder for Man-su to go through with the murder.
"There's a lot of also internal struggle there because he starts to empathize with Bummo and that creates a lot of hesitation within him," Lee said. "It's not very well executed or planned out."
Westlake published The Ax in 1997. It was also adapted in 2005 by director Costa-Gavras.
Unfortunately, the continued layoffs in many industries made Park's adaptation remain relevant.
"A company's sole purpose is to make profit and in order to maximize profit, they have to prioritize cutting down budget," Park explained. "So to them, a laborer has always been considered as an element in their equation of productivity in regards to efficiency."
Still, the executives in his movie say they have no other choice because Park himself is trying to understand why they do not consider investing in employees as an option.
"We are all aware of how CEOs and executives of companies have an unimaginable amount of high salary," Park said. "They only focus on short-term profit instead of considering their social responsibility or what kind of a long-term benefit they could bring to society as a company."
Earlier this year, Lee also voiced the villainous demon in KPOP Demon Hunters. Lee was surprised by the global phenomenon it became, because he made the film for personal reasons.
"I have two young kids and they aren't able to see most of my filmography because there's a lot of violent movies in there," Lee said. "I wanted to be part of a project that I could watch with my children."
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