<\/p>\n
Lee Byung-hun<\/a> looks every inch one of Korea\u2019s biggest stars, debonair in his natty, slim-fitting suit, relaxing in this glass-walled room by the pool of a West Hollywood hotel. The happy tourists don\u2019t notice Park Chan-wook<\/a>, the cinematic master behind such tours de force as \u201cOldboy\u201d<\/a> and \u201cDecision to Leave,\u201d<\/a> projecting thoughtful politesse beside him. These two giants of Korean film hadn\u2019t made a feature together since 2000\u2019s \u201cJoint Security Area\u201d (though they collaborated on a segment of the 2004 horror anthology \u201cThree \u2026 Extremes\u201d). It took a satirical American novel chronicling capitalism\u2019s crushing effects on a schlubby, middle-age dad to reunite them for Oscar submission \u201cNo Other Choice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven if I didn’t like the character or story that he posed, I would’ve still participated because it’s director Park. He has another level of storytelling,\u201d says Lee, speaking, like Park, through an interpreter. \u201cFrom previous projects, I know his process is incredibly joyful and full of laughter. So I knew I could look forward to the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Park says he started developing the project as an American film about 20 years ago, so he didn\u2019t think of casting Lee as the middle-age company man at its center. But when it finally came together as a Korean project instead, Lee \u201chad reached the right age for the role. So before I started the adaptation process for the [Korean] screenplay, I had him in mind for the main character, Man-soo.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Westlake\u2019s 1997 novel, \u201cThe Ax,\u201d concerns a family man who is laid off from his job as a manager at a paper company. After a long period of unemployment, he identifies his top competitors for jobs \u2014 and sets out to murder them. A 2005 screen adaptation by Costa-Gavras did not deter Park from working out his own version, leaning into themes of the cruelty and absurdity of capitalism.<\/p>\n \u201cThis man, after he gets fired, doesn’t target those who have directly harmed him, but, strangely enough, goes for those who are equally as pitiful as him,\u201d says Park. \u201cThe just target should have been the company or even the capitalist system as a whole. He went after the wrong target.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s unusual to consider an awkward, suburban dad and company stalwart being an acting stretch, but Lee is known for his dramatic intensity, action-movie heroism, even villainy. \u201cNo Other Choice\u201d exhibits spasms of taut thriller and family melodrama, but its bare-knuckled satire, sprinkled with slapstick, plays as Park\u2019s funniest film.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is true that this film is more comedic in nature, but my other films have also had elements of black comedy and dark humor,\u201d says Park. \u201cDoing that is in my nature; it all feels very intuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n One sloppy murder attempt becomes full-on farce as Man-soo finds himself shouting marital advice to an intended victim over deafening music before the action devolves into a messy three-way scrum.<\/p>\n Known for his fighting ability, Lee calls the scene \u201cthe biggest obstacle for me \u2026 We’re biting and pulling, we’re rolling around. That is actually a lot more difficult than something choreographed.\u201d<\/p>\n To Park\u2019s grin of acknowledgment, Lee proudly takes credit for the height of physical comedy in the sequence, when the combatants messily grab for a fallen gun, resulting in an overhead shot of three struggling posteriors.<\/p>\n