No Other Choice (2025) directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Lee Byung-hun was fucking phenomenal. spoilers but I just adored how the narrative set up Mansoo having to kill the three phases/egos of his unemployment in order to rejoin the workforce as he thinks he still is was. His victims, whose deaths "have to mean something" are:
Bummo: pathetic, washed-up unemployed traditional-minded (records, ballad playing during the death scene, drinks Korean alcohol) geezer (noticeably aged from headshot) whose wife is cheating on him with a younger/more confident/more successful/sexier stud (analogous to fear of being replaced by younger workers/AI)
Sijoo: honorable family man who sacrifices his pride as an educated, management-level man for his daughter (who is truly Mansoo's by blood...) through working at an occupation ābeneathā him (must be subservient in mannerisms, but also... you walk on/in/with shoes). we spend the least time with Sijoo because Mansoo never sees how this chase destroys his family unit/his daughter can't see because of her disability
Seonchul: successful manager who happily sells the Paper Industry (Mansoo canāt stop rewatching his commercial about how the paper industry is sustainable. does he just want to be him, uncaring of the message?) but loses his wife and does not find pleasure in domesticity anymore, which Mansoo starts off the movie with and can never return to.
Mansoo loses all of these reflections in himself. Truly sells the Pyrrhic victory as the ending scene/credits give you a slow smile that confirms Mansoo's dream of returning to his career (and therefore secure, masculine provider identity/community) was always impossible because the industry is trekking towards automation and capitalism is heading towards environmental ruin.
