'No Other Choice' racking up more awards for Park Chan-wook at Sitges

Director Park Chan-wook took home the Best Director award at the 58th Sitges Film Festival for his latest film “No Other Choice,” further solidifying his reputation as one of Korea’s most acclaimed filmmakers.

The film follows Ma-su, played by Lee Byung-hun, a salaryman whose life feels perfectly complete until he’s suddenly laid off. Determined to protect his family and hold on to the childhood home he worked so hard to rebuy, he wages a desperate personal battle to rebuild his life.

The Sitges Film Festival, held annually in Spain, is one of the world’s largest genre film festivals, dedicated to highlighting fantasy, horror and other imaginative works of high artistic quality.

Park’s latest win continues his long history with the festival. He had previously received awards for “Oldboy” (2003), “Three … Extremes” (2004), “I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK“ (2006), “Night Fishing” (2011) and “The Handmaiden” (2016).

“No Other Choice” has already built strong international momentum, becoming the first Korean film in 13 years to compete at the Venice International Film Festival, and later winning the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It has also screened at major festivals in New York, London and Miami. On film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it continues to hold a rare 100 percent critics’ score from over 60 reviews.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]