No Other Choice Review: Downsizing, Desperation, and a 99% Critics’ Score

In No Other Choice, the fight for employment crosses a terrifying line: kill, or be left behind. This is when an idea becomes a chilling lived experience.​

Here is our version of No Other Choice review, which presents an explicit satire on downsizing and the job market, illustrating a ruthless reality that is becoming increasingly disturbing.  ​

Plot details of No Other Choice (2025)​

Directed by Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice is a comedy thriller that focuses on a man who takes desperate measures to feed his family. You Man-soo (played by Squid Game’s frontman Lee Byung-hun) is laid off by the paper company he has given 25 years of his life to.​

The entire manufacturing industry is downsizing, and workers like Man-soo are the ones who suffer. He resorts to a scary plan where he tries to remove every other candidate for his next job.​

The film portrays his repeated interview failures and the cut-throat job market as forces that deeply humiliate him, gradually shaping him into a version of himself that society would never have accepted under normal circumstances.

Click below to watch the trailer:​

Actors’ performances in No Other Choice (2025)

I would like to highlight three notable characters: Lee Buyung-hun’s Man-soo, Son Ye-jin’s Miri, and Lee Sung-min’s Bummo. Man-soo faces unemployment, struggles with his own identity, has fragile confidence, and takes drastic measures for survival. He is truly a devoted family man, but a complex figure as he attempts to find justification for his criminal actions.

Lee Byung-hun grounds the character in painful realism, revealing how ideals of masculinity and provision collapse under a patriarchal demand to succeed at all costs. With nothing more than his gaze and controlled expressions—even while bowing before a manager in a desperate plea for work—he exposes the cruelty of a corporate system that reduces honest labor to a merciless, zero-sum game. Man-soo’s struggle is not just economic but deeply personal: a fight to retain his manhood and pride while facing a moral choice that threatens to erase both.​

Son Ye-jin’s Miri serves as an emotional anchor of the family. She is a committed wife and homemaker who tries everything to keep the household functioning in survival mode. She deeply felt for her husband when she came to know that he was trying hard and had embraced illegal paths, believing they were the only way to keep his family afloat.

Although the rest of the characters had a short screen time, Lee Sung-min’s Bummo caught my eye the most. He was the first victim of Man-soo, where the latter wasn’t at fault at all. Bummo was already suffering from his wife’s cheating and was utterly devastated. The actions of his wife were the result of Bummo’s constant obsession with the job and the interview he was preparing for, which had made Bummo a total wreck.​

What do critics add to the No Other Choice review?

The 99 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is the true depiction of the fact that the film is a masterpiece. The critics’ consensus says,

“Directed with pristine precision by Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice is a wickedly clever takedown of the corporate rat race that finds a perfect avatar in Lee Byung-Hun’s skillfully hapless performance.” [Source]

The critics are overwhelmingly complimentary as they call it “one of the best films of the year”. They were fond of the storytelling due to the kind of choices the protagonist has to make, leading to memorable sequences and imagery.​

Chan-wook’s direction encapsulated the unsettling truths of capitalism, leaving us with bruises even after the credits rolled, one critic disclosed. The critics are of the view that Chan-wook is a director who is capable of combining “brutality” with character magic and hard-hitting themes from our everyday lives that come with a blow, creating nothing but absolute magic.   

Fans’ reaction

The viewers have given slightly lower ratings than the critics since they feel it was another Parasite (2019) and “doesn’t have its own charm. The audience found some of the scenes long and the jokes repetitive.

The rest of the majority felt that it was the director’s finest work yet, claiming the film to be amazing, wild, visually stunning, and impeccable in every way.  

Is it worth watching?​

No Other Choice stands out as one of 2025’s most ingenuously thought-provoking films—unsettling, sharply observed, and emotionally bruising. It is mainly an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel, The Ax. The film is a sharp thriller exploring the psychological toll of a fierce job market, corporate downsizing, and economic misery under capitalism.

The perception of a man’s role as a sole provider is an ongoing cultural discussion that is now also overly emphasized in films. It is an evolving trope, though, and No Other Choice’s narrative still showed the prevalent “breadwinner archetype.”

Even cancelling a Netflix subscription and giving away their pet dogs, whom they can no longer feed, is the utter portrayal of helplessness when their father becomes jobless. It is the same representation of masculinity in media that plays a significant role in shaping societal expectations of gender roles.

The sense of shame and loss that Man-soo was going through led to his manic dealing with self-worth. This contemporary film shows the immense pressure and anxiety that Man-soo was going through as men, from their childhood, are trained to suppress their vulnerability, discouraged from seeking help, and are expected to appear more resilient.​

This raises a big question about men being deemed as normal ‘humans’ having feelings, weaknesses, and emotional needs. This question is crystallized in the pivotal early scene of No Other Choice, the one moment that lingered with me, where Man-soo asks his family for “one minute hug” and says “I have it all”. It is the quiet simplicity of his life’s ultimate contentment, seemingly perfect. It was strikingly beautiful and, therefore, rightfully earned a place on the upcoming Oscars shortlist for Best International Feature Film.

What we liked

• A bold, unsettling premise
• Lee Byung-hun’s powerhouse performance
• Sharp social commentary on masculinity and capitalism
• Park Chan-wook’s precise direction
• Emotionally grounded supporting performances
• Memorable imagery and quiet moments

What could be better

• Uneven pacing in some parts
• Repetitive dark humor
• Comparison to Parasite showing lack of a fully distinct identity
• Emotional heaviness may not suit all viewers

Here’s a detailed breakdown of our rating for No Other Choice (2025):

Story/plot	9/10
Characters and acting	9/10
Direction and pacing	9.5/10
Visuals and cinematography	9/10
Soundtrack/score	8/10
Themes and message	10/10
Emotional impact	10/10
Creativity/originality	7/10
Rewatchability	7/10

​​Our rating: 8.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

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Is No Other Choice (2025) available for online streaming?

Neon distributed No Other Choice (2025) (R-rated) in theatres at the moment, and no streaming dates have been confirmed at the time of writing. 

Genre: Dark comedy, satire, crime, drama, thriller

IMDb rating: 7.5

Rotten Tomatoes: 99 percent on Tomatometer (critics’ score) and 88 percent on Popcornmeter

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-Min, Yeom Hye-Ran

Director: Park Chan-wook

Writers: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Jahye Lee, Don McKellar

Producers: Park Chan-wook, Jisun Back, Michele Ray-Gavras, Alexandre Gavras

Release date: December 25, 2025

Movie runtime: 2 hours 19 minutes

What’s your take on No Other Choice—masterpiece or overstatement?