In his wickedly incisive new thriller, Park Chan-wook delivers a brutal allegory of modern work culture, starring Lee Byung Hun as a devoted family man driven to violence after losing his job.

When esteemed paper specialist Yoo Man-soo is suddenly laid off, the carefully constructed life he has long prided himself on begins to unravel. So when a coveted new opportunity arises, he devises a flawless plan to eliminate his rivals - by any means necessary. With dazzling precision and a gleefully sinister edge, Park delivers an entertaining thriller steeped in his trademark dark humor, razor-sharp twists, and sumptuous visual style, reaffirming his singular place in contemporary cinema.

The Garden Cinema View:

Park Chan-wook returns with his most purely comic film to date, albeit one still bristling with perverse and violent thrills. This satire of workplace precarity is highly prescient, quite unsettling, and thunderously entertaining. Lee Byung-hun is excellent (although playing to type) as our handsome family man, who finds himself following a path of psychotic logic to guarantee his future employment. Park’s camera moves and edits are as playful and baroque as ever here, but without distracting from the action. And to follow his Vertigo-esque Decision to Leave with this, perhaps marks him as the true heir to Alfred Hitchcock.  

Cast:
Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min