“Tell us, what is your greatest weakness?” This question comes up during a job interview in No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook’s latest film. The protagonist, You Man-su, played by actor Lee Byung-hun, knows this moment is crucial. He stammers out a hesitant “I refuse,” leaving his interviewers dumbfounded. After an awkward pause and a glance at the sun, he finally adds, “is not part of my vocabulary.” The very next scene makes it clear that he will not get the job.

When asked remotely about his own worst flaw, the 62-year-old director from South Korea did not hesitate. “I would say my inability to adapt to real life. For example, I don’t like driving and my wife often reproaches me for it. I’m also very bad at anything administrative, like going to the bank.”

Fortunately, Park has other strengths. Chief among them is his ability to twist reality in his films to reveal its underlying impulses and darkness; he transcends everyday turmoil with a novelistic intensity. Joint Security Area (2000), his first major success, balanced unlikely camaraderie with suspicion and betrayal along the demarcation line between North and South Korea.

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