No Other Choice: Park Chan-wook Strikes Again in 4K

With No Other Choice, Korean director Park Chan-wook returns to explore obsessions, violence, and social despair, starting from an only seemingly simple premise: a man loses his job and sees his entire identity crumble, piece by piece.

Donald E. Westlake's novel The Ax has been adapted into a pitch-black comedy, where capitalism becomes a suffocating trap and personal success a form of extreme survival. At its center is a magnificent Lee Byung-hun, perfect in portraying the slow moral collapse of a family man willing to do anything to avoid falling to the margins.

A Venomous Satire on Work

Park constructs the film by alternating cruel irony, creeping paranoia, and violent outbursts of anger, always maintaining an elegant direction made of continuous camera movements, carefully crafted shots, and images with strong symbolic impact.

Not everything works perfectly, however. The generous runtime of 139 minutes ends up slowing the pace in the central part, and some sequences dwell too much on the same concepts, diluting some of the tension. However, when the film finds the right balance, all the talent of the director of Oldboy emerges. It remains a bitter and venomous work, which uses the protagonist's personal collapse to depict an increasingly fierce and inhumane world of work.

Native 4K Master with DTS Lossless and ATMOS

Shot entirely digitally (Arri Alexa 35) at native 4.6K resolution, finalized on a native 4K master from which this excellent Italian UHD edition, curated by LuckyRed, was created. Image format 2.35:1 close to the original 2.39:1 (3840 x 2160/24p), HEVC encoding on a BD-100 triple layer disc. Images of sumptuous rendering even on large screens, the feeling is that Kim Woo-hyung's cinematography has been given more breathing room, even in darker or nocturnal transitions.

The detail in the background and the breadth of colors are remarkable, also thanks to Dolby Vision, leaving the impression of a superior spectacle compared to the mirrored BD-50 with the 2K version included here. Deep blacks, dynamic range of lights for a sumptuous scenario that remains so even on demanding screens like our Panasonic Z85V 55" OLED.

Dual audio offering with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Italian (16 bit), with excellent rendering of dialogue, ambient noises, and support between echoes and moments of greater narrative and musical intensity. The original Korean Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with 13 ATMOS objects (24 bit) is superior, opening up an even richer listening experience in terms of dynamics and soundstage presence, further approaching the theatrical experience.

The 2K disc includes the few extras: about 5 minutes with the cast and director delving into the themes of the story; film introduction by cast and director; trailer. Italian subtitles. Cardboard slipcover.