Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the zombies of “We Bury the Dead,” the psychological drama of “The Plague” and the social satire of “No Other Choice.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “No Other Choice,” a new comedic thriller from Oscar winning director Park Chan-wook, a middle-aged paper mill manager is driven to violent extremes after being laid off after twenty-five years of working for the same company.
CAST: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran and Cha Seung-won. Directed by Park Chan-wook.
REVIEW: A satirical black comedy that touches on themes of economic anxiety and living to work instead of working to live, “No Other Choice” is a timely, if exaggerated, look at the price people pay to make money.
When the story begins Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has a good, long-time job at the papermaking company Solar Paper. When he’s not at work he lives a comfortable life with wife, children and dog. But when an American company buys the factory, Man-Su is laid off, throwing his life into chaos.
Unemployed for the first time in twenty-five years, he promises his family he’ll be able to land another job, maybe even a better one, within three months. Thirteen months later, still unemployed and unable to pay the mortgage, he devises a risky plan to reclaim his dignity and provide for his family—he’ll make himself in-demand by killing his competition. “It’s how I’m meant to be,” he says, “I’ve no other choice.”
Despite the dark subject, Man-su’s desperation and the relatively high body count, “No Other Choice” is a playful film. Director Park Chan-wook’s peek at ruthless corporations and expendable workers is delightfully absurd and yet grounded in real human behavior.
Man-su’s actions are over the top, and increasingly chaotic, but the driver of his deadly journey are the primal forces of respect and self-worth. The film’s villain isn’t entirely the guy who’s knocking off his competition, it’s the dehumanizing system that pushed him to extremes, that gave him “no other choice” but to act out.
“No Other Choice” isn’t a delicate movie. It’s a hair overlong and delivers its message with the subtlety of a slap across the face, but the story’s unpredictability is very entertaining.
Set in 1930s Korea, “The Handmaiden” is an epic story of madness, con games, double crosses, double-double crosses, kinky sex, desire and more. Director Chan-wook Park adapts Welsh writer Sarah Waters’ novel “Fingersmith,” wringing every ounce of lascivious pleasure from its sprawling story of sex and intrigue.
When Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) is hired as a handmaiden to the reclusive Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) she appears to be the perfect servant. Humble and subservient, she caters to Hideko’s every whim but all is not what it appears. Turns out Sook-hee is a shill, a thief sent to the countryside estate Hideko shares with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong) as part of a plan to steal her inheritance. Her job is to get close to her mistress and fan the flames of love between the heiress and Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), a handsome swindler who plans on seducing, marrying and then committing Hideko to an insane asylum before making off with her fortune.
That’s enough story for most movies, but it’s only part of the first chapter of three that comprise the two-and-a-half-hour film.
Chan-wook Park’s films have never shied away from lurid, sensational imagery, and “The Handmaiden” is no different. Unapologetically erotic and convoluted, the film revels in its ridiculousness, luxuriating in every plot twist and turn. Told from multiple points of view with an ever-changing character dynamic, it demands your attention.
What begins as a con game ends as a (SPOILER ALERT) a triumph of undervalued women who use the manipulation of the men in their lives as a weapon. It’s a complicated revenge story, ripe with detail and secrets. As vaguely trashy art house cinema goes, however, it doesn’t get much more enjoyably escapist than “The Handmaiden.”
