Will Son Ye-jin win her first Oscar with No Other Choice? Critics praise her 'standout' performance

Park Chan-wook’s much-anticipated film No Other Choice left this year’s Venice International Film Festival without the coveted Golden Lion, which instead went to Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother. Despite the loss, Chan-wook struck a grateful tone, saying the film’s enthusiastic reception was reward enough. “The audience’s response has been better than for any film I’ve made, so it already feels like I’ve won a big award,” he told reporters after the closing ceremony.

The film has drawn strong praise from international critics and generated buzz at home, cementing Chan-wook’s reputation as one of South Korea’s most daring filmmakers. And now, it has recently been picked by the Korean Film Council to be the nation's entry for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.

The South Korean black comedy thriller, co-written, produced, and directed by Chan-wook, follows Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a paper industry expert who seemingly has it all — a wife (Son Ye-jin), two children, a comfortable life — until he’s suddenly laid off. What begins as a satire on corporate disposability spirals into a mix of slapstick homicide, family fractures, and unsettling revelations about the past.

The Verge praised its biting humour. “What plays out is darkly hilarious, as Yoo Man-su might be the most hapless killer I’ve seen in a film… Think Parasite, but more slapstick.” Inverse highlighted Chan-wook's playful irony and Son Ye-jin’s standout turn: “The best surprising standout of the film is Son Ye-jin as Man-su’s increasingly suspicious wife Miri, with the actress displaying an equally deft ability for both comedy and drama.”

The Guardian dug into its deeper layers of trauma and societal critique: All this might be only tangentially connected to his sacking… mechanisation is coming, the algorithm is king, people are less important and our human intentions and human agency are descending into farcical irrelevance.

The film’s mix of biting satire, domestic drama, and Park’s signature stylistic flair makes No Other Choice a serious contender for the international feature race. Its tonal tightrope — balancing slapstick with existential dread — could split voters, but strong performances from Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin, paired with Park’s reputation, give it momentum.

The real test will be whether Academy voters embrace its genre-bending chaos in the same way critics have. If they do, No Other Choice might just surprise on the Oscar stage.