(2025, South Korea, 139')
Twenty years after Lady Vengeance, the final chapter of his famed “vengeance trilogy”, Park Chan-wook returns to Venice with a new adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel The Axe. You Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a skilled paper factory worker with 25 years of experience, is suddenly laid off. Humiliated and unable to find new work, on the brink of financial and personal collapse, Man-su makes a drastic decision: eliminate the competition by any means necessary.
Park Chan-wook (Seoul, 1963), one of the most influential South Korean filmmakers, self-taught film and debuted in 1992 with The Moon Is… The Sun’s Dream. He gained international acclaim with Oldboy (2003), winning the Grand Prix at Cannes. His films, often rich in visual and moral complexity, span various genres, from horror (Thirst, 2009) to erotic noir (The Handmaiden, 2016, BAFTA winner), to the recent Decision to Leave (2022), awarded Best Director at Cannes. No Other Choice marks his twelfth feature film, a long-awaited and meaningful return.
