Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ extended cut announced
Park Chan-wook‘s latest box office hit, No Other Choice, is set to enjoy an extended cut, which will run to a total of two hours and 37 minutes.
The satire had its domestic premiere as the opening film of the 30th Busan International Film Festival on September 17th. A theatrical release in South Korea followed on September 24th, with it hitting cinemas in January in the UK.
No Other Choice stars Squid Game‘s Lee Byung-hun as a middle-aged worker whose life suddenly becomes unmoored when he loses the job he’s held down for decades. Quickly realising that the modern job market is a cutthroat, nightmarish hellscape of endless applicants for precious few jobs, he vows to kill his competition to provide for his family. It is a loose adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel, The Ax.
Having enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews, Park has now confirmed that, when the film receives its 4K release in a few months, it will enjoy an extended cut format.
Speaking on the Kevin McCarthy Podcast, the Old Boy director shared the great news, sharing via a translator, “I worked on the expanded cut of the movie for Blu-ray and just finished editing the cut in Korea. I think there’s going to be an extra 18 minutes for the extended cut.”
Hinting at what that might involve, the director shared, “For that cut, we extended the dialogue for the shoe scene as well; because the scene is longer, we also hear the sound of the bell repeat for even longer.”
Here, Park is referring to a scene in which the protagonist meets one of his rivals at his new shoe shop and approaches him with the cover-up story that he wants to buy a pair of shoes for his daughter. He will use the plan to lure the unsuspecting victim into his trap.
Far Out gave the movie a tremendous five stars, observing, “The performances of the central characters are excellent, Lee in particular capturing the way a job title can become a source of confidence and even identity, and the humiliation and desperation connected with unemployment. The satire is extreme but effective, never too grim to not be funny, and never quite absurd enough to fail in hitting its target.”
Watch the official trailer below.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.