Lee Byung-hun seems each inch certainly one of Korea’s greatest stars, debonair in his natty, slim-fitting go well with, stress-free on this glass-walled room by the pool of a West Hollywood resort. The comfortable vacationers don’t discover Park Chan-wook, the cinematic grasp behind such excursions de power as “Oldboy” and “Resolution to Depart,” projecting considerate politesse beside him. These two giants of Korean movie hadn’t made a characteristic collectively since 2000’s “Joint Safety Space” (although they collaborated on a section of the 2004 horror anthology “Three … Extremes”). It took a satirical American novel chronicling capitalism’s crushing results on a schlubby, middle-age dad to reunite them for Oscar submission “No Different Alternative.”
“Even when I didn’t just like the character or story that he posed, I’d’ve nonetheless participated as a result of it’s director Park. He has one other stage of storytelling,” says Lee, talking, like Park, by an interpreter. “From earlier initiatives, I do know his course of is extremely joyful and stuffed with laughter. So I knew I might sit up for the expertise.”
Park says he began creating the undertaking as an American movie about 20 years in the past, so he didn’t consider casting Lee because the middle-age firm man at its heart. However when it lastly got here collectively as a Korean undertaking as a substitute, Lee “had reached the precise age for the position. So earlier than I began the variation course of for the [Korean] screenplay, I had him in thoughts for the primary character, Man-soo.”
Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel, “The Ax,” issues a household man who’s laid off from his job as a supervisor at a paper firm. After an extended interval of unemployment, he identifies his high rivals for jobs — and units out to homicide them. A 2005 display screen adaptation by Costa-Gavras didn’t deter Park from figuring out his personal model, leaning into themes of the cruelty and absurdity of capitalism.
Lee Byung-hun in “No Different Alternative.”
(Neon)
“This man, after he will get fired, doesn’t goal those that have instantly harmed him, however, unusually sufficient, goes for individuals who are equally as pitiful as him,” says Park. “The simply goal ought to have been the corporate and even the capitalist system as an entire. He went after the unsuitable goal.”
It’s uncommon to contemplate a clumsy, suburban dad and firm stalwart being an appearing stretch, however Lee is understood for his dramatic depth, action-movie heroism, even villainy. “No Different Alternative” reveals spasms of taut thriller and household melodrama, however its bare-knuckled satire, sprinkled with slapstick, performs as Park’s funniest movie.
“It’s true that this movie is extra comedic in nature, however my different movies have additionally had components of black comedy and darkish humor,” says Park. “Doing that’s in my nature; all of it feels very intuitive.”
One sloppy homicide try turns into full-on farce as Man-soo finds himself shouting marital recommendation to an meant sufferer over deafening music earlier than the motion devolves right into a messy three-way scrum.
Identified for his preventing capacity, Lee calls the scene “the most important impediment for me … We’re biting and pulling, we’re rolling round. That’s really much more tough than one thing choreographed.”
To Park’s grin of acknowledgment, Lee proudly takes credit score for the peak of bodily comedy within the sequence, when the combatants messily seize for a fallen gun, leading to an overhead shot of three struggling posteriors.
1. Director Park chan-wook. (Sela Shiloni / For The Instances) 2. Star Lee Byung-hun. (Sela Shiloni / For The Instances)
Park’s hard-nosed strategy to his themes, his capacity to elicit robust performances and his deft contact with advanced materials have constructed his lofty repute. However so has his command of the instruments of cinema. In “No Different Alternative,” his transitions and visible juxtapositions convey profound themes beneath the satirical floor.
He visually compares Man-soo’s spouse’s head to the shovel that will likely be used to assist get rid of victims, and the household’s home is superimposed over a bonfire, implying what’s at stake. Man-soo is a continuing gardener who makes use of robust wires to twist roots and branches as he wants; their later use suggests the unnatural shapes into which the capitalist system twists people.
The presence of a performer of Lee’s standing raises the query of how the director works with actors.
“I’m certain you’ve heard of director Park’s repute,” Lee says, smiling. “He by no means will get mad and may be very gentlemanly and calm on set. But it surely boils all the way down to one thing deeper than that, as a result of what’s demanded of you, whether or not you’re an actor or a crew member, is a stage of your craft [at its highest]. What’s being requested of you is excessive.
“However the ambiance may be very comfortable. Any new actor, crew member working with him, they may really feel nervous. Nonetheless, as somebody who has already skilled working with director Park, I knew it will be very pleasant.”
Park says, “His first query to me after studying the screenplay was, ‘Am I allowed to be humorous?’ As a result of he stated he was laughing as he learn the script though [it’s] such a tragic state of affairs.” As soon as Lee had the inexperienced gentle from his director to make a idiot of himself, he was off and working.
In a scene involving a snake chunk, Lee’s facial expressions have been “funnier by twofold” in comparison with Park’s expectations. For a later scene when Man-soo is strolling, businesslike, towards his first tried homicide, Lee improvised a spastic callback to the sooner snake second. Park laughs on the reminiscence, then makes the interpreter giggle by saying, “I had no different selection however to go away it in.”
