Director: Park Chan-wook
Another interesting release from the land of kimchi. After the phenomenal success of 'Parasite' and the subsequent heart-racing Korean dramas, this must be it. A social satire told as a black comedy in the wackiest way.
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| https://www.cineart.be/nl/films/no-other-choice |
We think we all have agency to choose whatever we like. We feel entitled to demand what we want. We think we have the option to choose. In reality, we have 'no other choice'.
We think we are indispensable in our jobs. We feel that if we do not show up for work, the office will shut down. Not true.
In the modern world, automation was the first to pose a threat to our livelihoods. Robotics replaced people in doing mundane, repetitive jobs. Now,
we have to live in the real fear of being slashed in corporate restructuring and cost-cutting exercises, and artificial intelligence (AI) hangs over our heads like Damocles' sword. Seniority and experience mean nothing in a world where dollars and cents mean everything.
The movie starts with the definition of bliss. It is spring, and a happy family with a pair of kids is having a barbecue in the garden of their huge ancestral home, enjoying each other's company. Man-su is a happy man. After 25 years at the paper mill, he received an appraisal from his bosses.
Before he knew it, Man-su was given a pink slip. The new American bosses decide to downsize by slashing the middle management. The bosses say, "they have no other choice." A devastated Man-su has to go. One by one, his life crumbles. He gives himself three months to get another job, with his extensive experience. But it is not easy. 17 months later, he is still struggling with odd jobs. His wife has to return to work as a dental assistant and give up her country club lifestyle. They have to give away their two Labradors to cut costs. He cannot afford to send his daughter, whom the teacher thinks is a cello prodigy, for further training. The family decides to sell their ancestral house, too.
In the midst of all that, the husband-wife relationship takes a dip, with both thinking the other is up to no good. Man-su attends an interview for a post at a paper mill but finds that three other candidates have stronger supporting qualifications, making them the favourites to be chosen. So Man-su thought eliminating (killing) them would increase his chances of securing the post. And that is what he goes on to do.
The wife suspects his activities, but she decides to look the other way. She had no other choice. Accepting her as a single mum, Mun-su had married her and given her a good life. She did not want her children to grow up without a father. Hence, the wife tries to hide certain facts when the police came knocking on their door enquiring about the missing interviewees.
There are many nuanced references to the way we, as workers, have no other choice but to dance to the tune of conglomerates that do not value labour but commodify it as disposable. Human experience means nothing as all that the human mind has learned over the break of civilisation has been digitalised to be run by AI. The middle management has lost its relevance. And the upper management has been downgraded to supervise their jobs. Only that the labour force and middle management job is automated.
In the case of paper production, with relevance to this story, trees are cut by machines. The expertise of lumberjacks is unnecessary. At the paper plant, shredding of trees into pulp is also automated. Machines do the quality control and trivial odds and ends. The role of the human is just oversee that there is no glitch in the system.
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