No Other Choice

This week we’ll explore the official trailer for Park Chan-wook’s new film No Other Choice, which recently won the International People’s Choice Award at TIFF.

The trailer opens with no music, only the sounds of crickets as we see a close shot of someone assembling a plastic pistol. The music enters at 0:05 at the cut to a shot of the production company’s logo (NEON). The use of staccato vocals here is reminiscent of Michael Abels’ main title cue ‘Anthem’ for Jordan Peele’s 2019 film_ Us_. The montage from 0:05-0:31 introduces us to the main character, Man-su, and his family. Man-su has lost his job at a paper factory and is trying to salvage his career. Subtle details in this sequence help tie the soundtrack to the visuals. A close-up of a counsellor taking a deep breath at 0:08 is synched to the beat of the music, and then that breath becomes part of the soundtrack, heard a total of 14 times in this trailer, suggesting its importance for the film. At 0:15, plucked strings are added to the staccato vocals. The smack of tennis rackets (one of the activities that must be sacrificed for Man-su’s family to stay afloat) on screen are synched to the beat of the music at 0:26 and 0:27, as is the slamming of the car door at 0:28. As Man-su’s family looks up from their dinners to face Mi-ri (Man-su’s wife) at 0:32, the music stops, replaced by a swelling wall of reverb.

This grabs the audience’s attention just at the right time for us to see the director’s title card on screen, leading into one of the most visually stunning camera shots in this trailer. Accompanied by sustained orchestral strings, at 0:34 the vocal syllables are now happening four times faster than in the previous montage, and they have a pattern of accents that mimics the glug-glug sound of drinking, as we see a shot from the bottom of a pint glass looking up at the drinker’s face, through the rapidly disappearing beer, as titles of Park’s directing credits wipe downwards.

Watch how at 0:40 the suited man in the foreground is tapping his neck with his hands, and it is in time with the beat of the music (this man’s not even in focus, we’re supposed to be watching Man-su’s handshake happening behind him: even the extras are synched to the music here for heaven’s sake!).

At 0:47 we cut to silence in order for the audience to focus (the close-up helps) on Man-su’s reaction to Mi-ri’s joke that another candidate for a job could be hit by lightning. The seed of an idea has been planted.

From 0:48-1:01 the music holds a single sustained note, gradually adding more instrumental layers. Man-su follows one of the men with whom he is competing for a job. At 1:01 Man-su holds a large potted plant ready to drop from the roof onto a man’s head. Man-su’s voiceover, which we’ve been hearing over the past few seconds, arrives at its concluding statement, the film’s title, “No other choice.”

Having brilliantly and succinctly set up the film’s premise, we now dive into a montage of Man-su’s life as a killer. At 1:06 layers of strings enter playing fast arpeggios, and the letters of the word “masterpiece” (from an August 2025 BBC film review) appear as though being typed out on screen in sync with the notes of the music. Even better though, is the way at 1:15, we see a hand turning up the volume on a stereo dial, as numbers on screen tick upwards, in sync with the music, to reach 100%, representing the film’s current rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There are even some diegetic trailer triplets to be heard here - listen to the rhythm of the man laughing in the bar at 1:32.

In the rapid-fire montage from 1:06-1:40 Man-su is abducting and killing his competitors and navigating the consequences. All the while the musical accompaniment relies on staccato strings, staccato vocals and accents on big drums. Musical minimalism here, to be sure, but the attention to detail in the editing means this trailer gets so much mileage out of its music, through intricate synching of the visuals with the music.

No Other Choice is in theatres at Christmas 2025.

— Jack Hui Litster