The New York Times (NYT) showered praise on lead actor Lee Byung-hun of director Park Chan-wook's film No Other Choice, saying he delivered "the impossible."
On December 10 (local time), NYT film and pop culture critic Wesley Morris named about 20 actors who delivered buzzy turns in an article on "this year's standout performances of madness and decadence," including Lee. On Lee's portrayal of Mansu, a man who starts killing his job-market rivals one by one after being fired, Morris wrote that he "rendered a human being who, out of desperation, turns himself into a marionette."
In Park Chan-wook's work—where comedy and tragedy coexist and audiences are ethically and emotionally tested—Lee pulls off what's often called an "impossible assignment." Morris even invoked American screen legend Jack Lemmon, who starred in The Apartment and Some Like It Hot, marveling, "I can't believe we're witnessing the birth of a psychopathic Jack Lemmon."
If Jack Lemmon embodied the kind, diligent middle-class family man in 1960s Hollywood, Lee captures the latent psychopathic twist—and the madness—lurking beneath everyday normalcy.
Meanwhile, Lee Byung-hun has been nominated for Best Actor at the 83rd Golden Globes.