Like poignant “Train Dreams,” the Korean black comedy film “No Other Choice” is based on a book, “The Ax” (1997),  by a US writer–in this case Donald Westlake. I was unable to see the 2005 French adaptation (“The Axe”), but this film is on the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film category for the Academy Awards.

Paper was invented in China, beginning with hemp and other fibers in the 2nd Century and then by 105 AD, mulberry bark, hemp and textile scrapes were incorporated into a mashed pulp that was pressed and then dried in sheets. Papermaking spread to Korea (610 AD) and then to Japan. It did not come to West Asia until 751 AD when Chinese papermakers were captured and paper mills were established in Baghdad and Damascus, thus replacing papyrus. The Moors then brought paper to Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries.

So Korea has a longer historic association with paper than Europe. I’m not as familiar with Korean culture as I am with Chinese and Japanese, but I know there’s something deeply embedded in Chinese and Japanese culture when looking at paper. I remember a Chinese calligrapher noting that he likes his paper to be a bit aged before he uses it. I remember the paper stores in Japan and the beauty of paper. So it makes more sense that we’d find Man-su, an award-winning highly paid employee, so proud of his work and his workforce at the papermaking company, Solar Paper. If you’re aware of the highly competitive nature of South Korean college education, the warped reasoning of the protagonist, makes more sense.

Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has everything. His wife Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin) is thin and beautiful. She takes tennis lessons. The son Si-One (Oh Dal-su) does well in school and is a reasonable kid. Man-su and Mi-ri have a daughter, Ri-one (So Yul Choi), who is neurodivergent, but talented on the cello. They have two dogs. They live in Man-su’s spacious childhood home.

Yet Man-su’s company is taken over by a US business and the new owners fire not just Man-su’s team which he had hoped to defend in a prepared speech that no one listens to, but Man-su is also let go. Confident that he’ll find a new job in three months, after 13 months, he has to settle for a low-paying retail job while his wife begins working as a dental assistant even as Man-su ignores a festering molar decay of his own.

Worse still, Ri-one was dependent upon the dogs and both the dogs must be given to his in-laws. Ri-one’s music teacher adds more financial burden to the family by recommending expensive cello lessons.

Both Man-su and his stepson have plans. Si-one and his best friend Geon-ho steal iPhones from Geon-ho’s father. Man-su decides to murder his competitors for a comparable job. Si-one’s plans go better, but they do get caught. Man-su’s murderous ways are comically thwarted and even when successful, awkwardly accomplished.

In some ways, the film, “No Other Way,”  reminded me of the murder mysteries of ambitions to inherit fortunes or titles such as the Tony Award-winning musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (also based on a book, Ron Horniman’s “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal”). Instead of an inheritance, it is a job that is the reward at the end. Maybe “No Other Way” is this generation’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

“No Other Way” is not a musical, but with the power of K-pop, it could be. In any case, during the film, we also see cut trees. We see machines that far surpass the technology of 1968, when the protagonist of “Train Dreams” dies. But Grainier left logging decades before his death when the technology puzzled him and he could no longer relate to the people. Granier, like Man-su finds comfort in a house that has ties to family.

In the end, Man-su also distances himself from his colleagues and ends up alone in his work life. In a land that was liberated from Japanese Imperialism, split through ideology into two countries, Man-su suffers under multinational corporation invasion of an American company where cultural understand and personal relationships are deemed superfluous. Man-su and his co-workers become victims to the relentless forward march of progress in a global economy with the only comfort and stability coming from family.

You might not be familiar with the name Lee Byung-hun, but if you loved “KPop Demon Hunters,” you’ll be familiar with his voice. He’s Gwi-Ma, the demon king who allows the Saja Boys to go and try to win music lovers to their side through idol worship. For fans of another Netflix show, “Squid Game,” Lee is the Front Man in all three seasons. Fans of Westerns might remember Lee from his smoldering posturing as Billy Rocks, the knife-throwing hired gun for the 2016 remake of “The Magnificent Seven.” Lee had been in another kind of Western in 2008: “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” as The Bad, or the bandit hitman hired to get the treasure map from the Japanese official in a Korean Western inspired by the 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” .

He was also in the Bruce Willis 2013 flick “Red 2.” There’s also his portrayal of Storm Shadow in the “GI Joe” films, “The Rise of Cobra” in 2009 and “Retaliation” in 2013.  Fans of the Terminator series will know him as the man who played T-1000 in “Terminator Genisys” in 2014. Lee also was the romantic lead in the highly rated award-winning South Korean TV series “Mr. Sunshine”( 미스터 션샤인; Miseuteo Syeonsyain) which streamed on Netflix. The role garnered Lee a Best Actor award at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

When you realize that Lee can be both a romantic lead and a serious bad guy, you can better appreciate his portrayal of an inept assassin, desperate to keep his family home and maintain his family’s stability and high level of living. Director Park Chan-wook is capable of handling period dramas as with the 2016 “The Handmaiden” and he’s good at keeping the balance between humor within horrific circumstances as in the recent miniseries “The Sympathizer.” In “No Other Way,” there is no glorification of Man-su means to achieve his ambitions. Yet we still sympathize with him as with sympathized with the undercover North Vietnamese spy (Captain in “The Sympathizer”).

“No Other Way” had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in August 2025. It is nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for the Golden Globes and it is the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film for the Academy Awards.