Park Chan-Wook Dark Comedy Thriller

Think about There is no other option (EOJJEOL SUGA EOPDA) as something similar Kind hearts and crowns That exchanges the Eduardian English aristocracy for the contemporary Korean industrial labor market, and will have an idea of ​​the complicated act of tonal balance it requires. Which makes it sad to inform that Park Chan-wook stumbles with some discordant changes. The film remains the work of a artisan teacher with his own idiosyncratic firm of stories narration, although the patetism and suspense of a working family man conducted by the despair of murdering become short in favor of crazy humor.

The second screen adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel The ax -After the 2005 French version of Costa-Gavras, it is not in any way without pleasures. Among them are their beautiful visual crispy, crazy camera angles and stimulating zoom; his two attractive clues; his fun blows to capitalism; and an inventive end that is a victory over the cruelty of corporate dismissals and a sobering recognition of the gloomy perspectives for humans in an automated workforce.

The director made his name at the beginning of the 2000s with housing of instantaneous worship as the operatically violent revenge fantasy Old. But its last two intoxicating characteristics, the sumptuous thriller of erotic period The maiden and the intricate neo-noir puzzles Decision to leaveI have seen your infallible control and thorough attention to the acute detail of elegant new ways. That makes the most rebellious style of the new film a disappointment, particularly since it has been a 20 -year dream project for Park.

Even so, many of the director’s admirers will adopt the wide comedy and Slapstick’s pranks, even if bets decrease for a protagonist who is a completely decent man until a crisis that threatens everything he has worked transforms him into the most clumsy murderer in the history of homicide. It is key to the management of Park material that the character retains much of his innocence, even after putting blood in his hands.

Although now it is better known as the leader in Squid gameLee Byung-Hun was one of the stars of the director’s first success, Joint Security Area. Ideally, he is chosen here as MAN-SU, a paper factory manager with 25 years of loyalty of the company.

The promising configuration is a birthday celebration for his wife Miri (son Ye-jin, wonderful) in the garden at the head of his strange but picturesque house (peculiar architecture is one of the movie’s visual charms). Man-Su gathers Miri, his teenage son (Kim Woo-Seung) and the youngest daughter (choi so-yul) in a group hug under a pinch of tree cherry flowers that extends over them while their two golden ornaments, I mean oh really Adorable: Enter affection. It is almost comically idyllic, which is clearly intended when Man-Su looks up and sighs with gratitude, “I have everything”, something that nobody has said in a movie without losing it immediately.

In a cruel joke, he learns that the expensive Anguilla in his barbecue sent by the factory management is like a gold clock kiss-off, in this case marking involuntary retirement. He arrives at work and disseminates the gloomy news among his team that the new US owners have indicated that there will be job losses. One of them turns out to be the man-su.

Park moving mine and mordant humor of a support group for recently unemployed men, where they work on their emasculation problems and are said in motivational exercises that their love families will support while looking for new opportunities. But despite a promise to get a new job in its sector, it is stacking cardboard in a large box store 13 months later.

Miri is pragmatic at home, reduces expenses, no more netflix for children or tennis lessons for the mother, and putting the house in the market, with plans to transfer them to an apartment. She informs her husband that with mortgage execution just three months away, it is her only way to pay her debts and stay afloat. He also returns part-time to his toothpiece work in a practice where the man-his suspicion of the handsome dentist to have designs about her.

What most of the lights a fire under the man-his is the idea of ​​losing the childhood house that worked hard to buy, a sanctuary standing on the ground that once was his father’s pig farm, where Potter loves in his greenhouse.

He obtains advice on a position that would be perfect for him, apart from working under the arrogant former subordinate Choi Sun-Chul (Park Hee-Soon), in the role of Luna, one of the few companies in the sector worked well, since they broke the Japanese market. The interview is a disaster, its disappointment later worsened when he returns, begging for work, and is humiliated by Choi.

The instinct of wanting to deactivate Choi and replace the unpleasant Hotshot is natural, although it occurs to Man-Su that to have the work guaranteed, he would have to eliminate any other unemployed man with the necessary grades.

That is reduced to only two. One is Gu Bummo (Lee Sung-Min), who spends his days in pickle in beer while his wife ARA Theater Actress (Yeom Hye -ran) criticizes him for his pathetic surrender. She recognizes that her husband is not to blame for losing her work, but her weakness when dealing with him gives her contempt. The other obstacle for Man-Su to be the first in the row in the role of the moon is Go Sijo (Cha Seung-Won), a shoe seller with kindness whose heart remains in the paper industry.

Despite Park’s cartoon humor, there is tenderness towards these men, who invested in their work to such a degree that being kicked on the sidewalk leaves them canceled, stripped of their identities.

To be easy for MAN-SU, with a false website of the company and a promotional video that help you eliminate serious candidates. Their guidance is more difficult for the inept aspiring murderer, landing it in shameful situations with precarious bets of bets, muddy land to slide and a mortal sour bite that brings an unexpected rescuer.

Lee handles physical comedy with the entangled discomfort and remains firmly planted on the average ground between self -preservation and murderous intention: it has no “other option.” But the plot of the average section becomes a bit crazy and the emphasis on laughter tends to neutralize the appearance of the thriller. However, the film returns to the track, with a result through some unpredictable dorses and a decisive intervention by Miri to fix MAN-SU’s bungling efforts.

Park dedicates the film to Costa-Gavras, who had the rights of the novel and worked with the Korean director in the initial development stages, when it was planned as a remake in English. The Canadian-writer-director Don McKellar, probably a remnant of that previous plan, is one of the four accredited scriptwriters, which can also be a factor that contributes to the Herky-Jerky tone.

Whatever the defects in the execution, the fact is that even a Park Chan-Wook movie subparts more than the best work of many directors. And those dogs!