Park Chan-wook to Receive Tribute from SFFILM for ‘No Other Choice’
Today, SFFILM announced a tribute to the venerable South Korean directing legend Park Chan-wook alongside a special screening of his most recent film No Other Choice.
The film, from NEON, reunites Director Park with lead performer Lee Byung Hun (Joint Security Area), for a mordant drama about the extremes an unemployed man reaches in his quest for a new position and sense of self. The event will take place at the Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA on Thursday, November 20, at 7:00 pm.
“With No Other Choice, Director Park returns to the satirical tone seen in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Stoker. He spent 20 years making this film, a dark comedy about a man desperate to rejoin the workforce at any cost,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “I am thrilled to celebrate Director Park with this 2025 SFFILM Presents Tribute for both his body of work and this new entry. No Other Choice is another shining example of Park’s visual elegance and his idiosyncratic reflections on capitalism, modern masculinity, and technological advances.
”SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai noted that international cinema is at the core of the institution’s work cultivating a vibrant and enduring film culture in the Bay Area. “With the roots of our organization firmly planted in bringing international films to audiences here in the Bay, it is a deep honor to welcome and celebrate Park Chan-wook. The experience of being in a theater to not only hear from a cinematic master , but to see his latest film, will surely be a special one for audiences new to and familiar with his great work.
Adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s The Ax, a withering corporate satire forms the backbone of No Other Choice. Man-su (Korean superstar Lee Byung Hun) has it all—great job, wife, two kids, two dogs—until the paper corporation he works for lays him off. When a new job doesn’t manifest after several months and his fantastic life begins to crumble, he arrives at a radical solution to beat the competition. Cue the elegantly devised macabre sequences that Park is known for in films like Oldboy (2003) and Decision to Leave (2022). The difference here is comedic: Unlike some of the filmmaker’s other protagonists, Man-su is no natural-born killer, just an ambitious businessman willing to do whatever it takes—no matter how extreme—to reclaim his comfortable life.
In his review for AwardsWatch, Adam Solomons writes, “though interested in class, gender politics and a crisis in Korean masculinity, No Other Choice is remarkably light of touch. Its jokes land and some of its performances verge on comedic.”
Director Park has constructed a unique cinematic world with his unconventional storytelling, fascinating characters, and sensual visuals. While he is perhaps best known for his “Vengeance Trilogy,” consisting of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005), he became celebrated as a global auteur with Oldboy (2003), winner of the Grand Prix at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. In the years since, he has continued to receive worldwide acclaim with films such as Thirst (2009), which won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival; Stoker (2013), starring Nicole Kidman, his Hollywood debut; and The Handmaiden (2016), which had its world premiere in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. In 2022, he came back with his first feature film in six years, Decision to Leave (2022), for which he won Best Director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and reaffirmed his status as one of the most distinguished directors in the industry.
No Other Choice had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival then won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award for International Film in September. This week, it was nominated for three Gotham Awards: International Feature, Adapted Screenplay and Lead Performance for Lee Byung Hun.
NEON will release the film in select U.S. theaters on December 25 and wide in January.
Tickets are now on sale for SFFILM Members at sffilm.org. The online box office will open to the general public on Friday, October 31 at 10 am. Ticket prices for General Admission are $35, and $30 for SFFILM Members. Senior, student, and ADA are $32.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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