Lee Byung-hun performs Man-soo in ‘No Different Selection.’ Photograph: courtesy of Han Cinema.
Park Chan-wook’s No Different Selection may have its first public screening in the primary competitors part on the 82nd Venice Worldwide Movie Competition (August 27 – September 6, 2025), the place it’s competing for the celebrated Golden Lion award.
Properly forward of its theatrical launch this September, there’s been loads of hype concerning the movie. It is sensible given it’s a Park Chan-wook film starring two of the most important heavyweights in Korean cinema, Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin.
If Park Chan-wook’s movies supply a window into society and human nature, the view is something however comforting—full of darkish impulses, unpredictable twists, and ethical gray zones that problem your notion at each flip. From Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Oldboy (2003) to Thirst (2009), The Handmaiden (2016), and Choice to Go away (2022), his physique of labor cements his standing as certainly one of Korea’s most acclaimed and imaginative administrators.
Park’s upcoming movie, No Different Selection, relies on The Ax, a 1997 horror-thriller novel by American author Donald Edwin Westlake. The story had beforehand been tailored right into a 2005 movie of the identical title by Greek-French director Costa-Gavras. Talking about his ideas on how he envisions his adaptation of the narrative on the 2019 Busan Worldwide Movie Competition, Park stated, “I want to make this movie as my masterpiece,” as reported by Variety.
No Different Selection is a high-stakes drama with darkish humor that follows the desperation of a person pushed to the sting after an surprising job loss, which drives him to take excessive measures in a bid to resolve his scenario. Lee Byung-hun performs Man-soo, a middle-aged household man and a loyal and devoted worker for over 20 years. In a sudden accident, he’s fired from his place, leaving him to hunt for a brand new and equal job to supply for his household. What initially looks like a brand new however achievable problem for him regularly turns into main frustration, to the purpose that he resorts to aberrant and really harmful habits—he begins monitoring down his opponents and killing them in order that he’s the one appropriate candidate left for the job he’s utilized for, and within the course of, turns into a ruthless assassin.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Park Chan-wook revealed his intention to additional discover the ethical complexity of the story, particularly specializing in Man-soo’s spouse, Mi-ri, performed by Son Ye-jin, and enhancing her function within the movie. According to Chosun Biz, Son drew inspiration from Mi-ri’s optimistic character, imagining how she would react within the movie’s scenario. “Mi-ri has an optimistic character and by no means loses her smile,” the actor expressed, as she prepares for the function in No Different Selection.
The film additionally boasts a stellar ensemble, together with Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, and Yoo Yeon-seok in key roles.