Today, SFFILM announced a tribute to the venerable South Korean directing legend Park Chan-wook alongside a special screening of his most recent film No Other Choice. The film, from NEON, reunites Director Park with lead performer Lee Byung Hun (Joint Security Area), for a mordant drama about the extremes an unemployed man reaches in his quest for a new position and sense of self. The event will take place at the Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA on Thursday, November 20, at 7:00 pm.

“With No Other Choice, Director Park returns to the satirical tone seen in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Stoker. He spent 20 years making this film, a dark comedy about a man desperate to rejoin the workforce at any cost,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “I am thrilled to celebrate Director Park with this 2025 SFFILM Presents Tribute for both his body of work and this new entry. No Other Choice is another shining example of Park’s visual elegance and his idiosyncratic reflections on capitalism, modern masculinity, and technological advances.”

SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai noted that international cinema is at the core of the institution’s work cultivating a vibrant and enduring film culture in the Bay Area. “With the roots of our organization firmly planted in bringing international films to audiences here in the Bay, it is a deep honor to welcome and celebrate Park Chan-wook. The experience of being in a theater to not only hear from a cinematic master, but to see his latest film, will surely be a special one for audiences new to and familiar with his great work.”

ABOUT PARK CHAN-WOOK

Born on August 23, 1963, Park Chan-wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and producer who is among the most acclaimed auteurs in the world. Park has constructed a unique cinematic world with his unconventional storytelling, fascinating characters, and sensual visuals. He is perhaps best known for his “Vengeance Trilogy”, consisting of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005). He became celebrated as a global auteur with Oldboy (2003), winner of the Grand Prix at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. In the years since, he has continued to receive worldwide acclaim with films such as Thirst (2009), which won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival; Stoker (2013), his Hollywood debut; and The Handmaiden (2016), which had its world premiere in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. In 2022, he came back with his first feature film in six years, Decision to Leave (2022), for which he won Best Director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and reaffirmed his status as one of the most distinguished directors in the industry. In 2025, he returns to the screen with No Other Choice (2025), a long-awaited passion project featuring a star-studded cast.

ABOUT THE FILM

A withering corporate satire forms the backbone of Park Chan-wook’s new film which is replete with the bravura set pieces for which he’s known. Man-su (Korean superstar Lee Byung Hun) has it all—great job, wife, two kids, two dogs—until the paper corporation he works for lays him off. When a new job doesn’t manifest after several months and his fantastic life begins to crumble, he arrives at a radical solution to beat the competition. Cue the elegantly devised macabre sequences that Park is known for in films like Oldboy (2003) and Decision to Leave (2022). The difference here is comedic: Unlike some of the filmmaker’s other protagonists, Man-su is no natural-born killer, just an ambitious businessman willing to do whatever it takes—no matter how extreme—to reclaim his comfortable life. Adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s The Ax, No Other Choice builds to a conclusion that is chillingly of the present moment. NEON will release No Other Choice in select theaters December 25, everywhere January 2026.