No Other Choice

★★★★ The Guardian

It’s American Psycho meets Parasite in the latest from Korean master Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden, Old Boy). When salaryman Man-su (Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun) is laid off, he and his wife Mi-ri (Son ye-jin) forego their luxuries and start applying for new jobs. But Man-su is not content with being the best man for the job: his competitive edge comes by murdering other applicants.

Park Chan-wook has long been at the forefront of Korean cinema’s resurgence, and No Other Choice matches his usual dizzy heights in films from Joint Security Area to Decision to Leave. Pairing genuinely sharp social observation with gruesome black comedy, No Other Choice shows that however grisly men’s deeds are, its the system that is the real meat grinder.