NO OTHER CHOICE

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts with the Yoo family sharing a meal outside. Husband and father Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) boasts about grilling eel while his wife Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin) calls her son/Man-su’s stepson Si-one (Kim Woo Seung) and their daughter Ri-one (Choi So Yul). Man-su works for Solar Paper and feels pride and comfort in providing for his family.

Solar Paper ends up bought out by Americans, resulting in the loss of many jobs, including Man-su’s. He starts to attend a support group for those who have been laid off and he eventually admits to Mi-ri that he lost his job, but she is confident that he will find something new.

Over a year later, Man-su has a dead-end job in retail and has not had much luck with other papermaking companies. The family has had to cut back on expenses and have given their dogs, Si-two and Ri-two, to Mi-ri’s parents temporarily, which most upsets Ri-one. The girl, who is a gifted cello prodigy, maintains her lessons, but her teacher tells Man-su and Mi-ri that she excels at a level suited for more advanced classes that cost more than the family can afford. The family is also forced to stay in a smaller space while buyers start looking at the house, including the family of Si-one’s friend Geon-ho (Lim Tae Poong). Mi-ri starts working as a dental assistant to a dentist named Jin-ho (Yoo Yeon-Seok), and Man-su ignores a toothache out of pettiness.

The stress of unemployment gets to a point where Man-su resorts to begging for a job on his knees at another company, Moon Paper. He meets manager Choi Seon-chul (Park Hee-soon), who directs him to a whiskey bar, even though Man-su has been sober for many years. He follows Seon-chul out of the bar and goes to a rooftop, where he prepares to drop a heavy potted plant on Seon-chul’s head to take his job. Man-su is spotted by the plant’s owner, and he talks himself out of the situation by buying the plant from her.

Man-su puts out a fake ad in the papers to weed out his competition. He gets down to three men – Seon-chul, Goo Beom-mo (Lee Sung-Min), and Ko Si-jo (Cha Seung-won) and decides he has to eliminate them in order to secure his job by getting his father’s Vietnam War gun.

Man-su starts to stalk Beom-mo, a drunkard and flatulent man married to his fed-up wife A-ra (Yeom Hye-ran). He sees the couple walking through the woods, missing his chance to take a shot at Beom-mo when A-ra steps in. Man-su tries to flee before he is spotted, but he gets bitten in his leg by a snake. A-ra sees him and tends to his wound.

The next day, Man-su makes another attempt on Beom-mo, but when he gets to his house, he finds A-ra having sex with another man. Man-su leaves the house before Beom-mo shows up and tries to phone him to stop him from entering his house, but Beom-mo catches A-ra anyway. Man-su sees an opening to sneak into the house and kill a drunken Beom-mo. He mistakes Man-su for A-ra’s lover, but she enters and it leads to a struggle where Man-su accidentally shoots Beom-mo. A-ra gets the gun and shoots Beom-mo dead, then tries to kill Man-su, but he escapes just in time.

Man-su rushes to a costume party to meet Mi-ri. He is dressed in a colonial costume while Mi-ri and Jin-ho, among others, are dressed like Native Americans. Man-su accuses Mi-ri of cheating, but she explains that she had him dress like John Smith while she is Pocahontas since that is Ri-one’s favorite cartoon. Mi-ri accuses Man-su of hitting the bottle again, reminding him of when he was drunk and attacked Si-one when he was five years old, as well as also having an affair.

Man-su later goes to the shoe store where Si-jo works. They strike a bond over having young daughters before discussing shared frustrations with unemployment. Later, Si-jo stops and sees Man-su on the side of the road, seemingly in need of help with his car. When Si-jo tries to help, Man-su produces his gun and hesitates to shoot Si-jo. He runs away, and Man-su shoots him and stuffs his body in the trunk of his car.

The following morning, the police show up at the family’s home. Man-su thinks he’s been caught, only to find out they are there because Si-one and Geon-ho stole phones from the latter’s father’s store. Man-su and Mi-ri blackmail Geon-ho’s father, threatening to expose him using his store for affairs to his wife in order for Geon-ho to take the fall so that Si-one can be let go.

That night, Man-su tries to find a way to dispose of Si-jo’s body. Si-one sees him through the roof of their greenhouse nearly dismembering the corpse, but Man-su ultimately buries it in the backyard under a tree that he has planted. Detectives later visit Man-su to inform him of Beom-mo and Si-jo’s disappearances. He almost lets it slip by insinuating that they are dead.

Man-su tracks Seon-chul down to his home and gets invited inside for a drink, forcing him to break his sobriety. He even painfully rips out his infected tooth. Meanwhile at home, Si-one tells Mi-ri that he thinks he saw Man-su bury a body. Mi-ri digs up Si-jo’s body but lies to Si-one and says it’s the body of an animal that Man-su hit with his car. She calls him out of concern, but she realizes he is too far gone. Man-su suffocates Seon-chul and buries him in the ground after stuffing his mouth with raw meat and alcohol to stage it like he died by choking on his own vomit.

In the aftermath, Man-su learns from detectives that A-ra is cooperating with police and has helped form a narrative that Beom-mo killed Si-jo and disappeared. Man-su gets the position at Moon Paper like he desired, though he will be working alone and with automated machines. They are able to get their old stuff back, including the dogs, but Mi-ri and Si-one know what kind of man Man-su really is.

The film ends with Man-su celebrating his new job alone in his workplace while the machines take care of the work.

Lee Man-su is let go from his papermaking job, leading to unemployment and depression for over a year. Desperate to land a new manager position for a different company, he puts out a fake ad to weed out his competition for the jobs. Man-su lands on three men - Goo Beom-mo, Ko Si-jo, and Choi Seon-chul.

Man-su first attempts to kill Beom-mo himself, but after being mistaken for his wife A-ra's lover, a struggle ensues where A-ra ends up killing Beom-mo after being fed up with him. Man-su tracks down Si-jo and tricks him with fake car troubles before killing him. Man-su finally meets Seon-chul at his home after previously meeting him, and he gets drunk with Seon-chul in order to stage his death as if he choked on his own vomit.

Detectives come to the conclusion that Beom-mo killed Si-jo and disappeared. Man-su's wife and stepson seem to be aware of his crimes but choose to keep quiet. Man-su ends up getting the manager position at the new paper company, though he works alone and with machines.