TEHRAN – The 2025 South Korean satirical black comedy thriller film “No Other Choice” co-written, produced, and directed by Park Chan-wook will be screened at the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran on Thursday. 

The 140-minute film will be shown at the Nasseri Hall of the IAF at 5 p.m. with Persian subtitles, ILNA reported. 

Based on the novel “The Ax” written by Donald Westlake, the film stars Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, and Cha Seung-won. 

It is the second film adaptation of the novel, after the 2005 French-language feature “The Axe” directed by Costa-Gavras. 

The film follows a desperate paper industry expert who decides to kill off his competition to be assured of the job he seeks to maintain his way of life.

In his diabolical new thriller, Park Chan-wook crafts a dark fable about the cutthroat nature of contemporary work culture and the domestic desperation for material comfort. In a fine, tightrope-walk of a performance, Lee Byung Hun brings humor and likability to the tricky role of Man-soo, a middle-aged husband and father who has been laid off from the paper manufacturing company to which he has devoted decades of his life. 

After an extended and increasingly worrisome period of unemployment, Man-soo begins to take merciless measures toward solidifying his standing with a potential new employer, leading to wild and ever more absurd acts of violence, crafted by Park in his inimitable and extravagant pitch-black comic style. 

The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in August, where it garnered critical acclaim, and had its domestic premiere as the opening film of the 30th Busan International Film Festival in September. It was also selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards.

Park Chan-wook, 62, is a South Korean filmmaker and former film critic. Widely regarded as a leading figure in South Korean and 21st-century world cinema, he is known for films that blend crime, mystery, and thriller elements with other genres, noted for their cinematography, framing, black humor, and often brutal subject matter.

His “Oldboy” (2003) and “Lady Vengeance” (2005) received critical acclaim and were financially successful. “Oldboy” in particular is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, and helped establish Park as a well-known director outside his native country.

Most of Park's following works was commercially and critically successful both in South Korea and internationally, such as “Thirst” (2009), “The Handmaiden” (2016), which earned Park the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and “Decision to Leave” (2022), which won the Best Director award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

SS/SAB