An uncomfortable truth awaits me this coming fall: Will I be able to get a job after college? Will spending $120,000 on a degree guarantee me anything? The blunt answer is no.
In the past that promise may have been true, but that is not enough anymore; nothing can be guaranteed. I know I will need to work hard. Everyone I have talked to about college has told me that I will need internships and certificates and all these additional things to make myself as attractive as I can to get a decent job. I am prepared for that, but a question still remains. Will what I train for become obsolete in the era of AI?
That’s where “No Other Choice,” Park Chan-wook’s latest film, strikes a chord with me. Yoo Man-su, the protagonist, is suddenly laid off from his 25 years of service to Solar Paper by a hostile downsizing. Suddenly, his family is yanked from their upper middle class reality and into hardship and stress. After three months of jobless drifting, Yoo finds that the best way of getting his job back is through killing off the men he thinks are better candidates for the position. Spoiler alert: When he finally does get his job back after clearing the playing field, he finds that he is alone in Moon Paper’s AI-run factory, a sharp contrast to Solar Paper’s bustling machinery and many employees at the start of the film.
Like Yoo, I am sure that I will need to fight for a career I love. I am not scared of having to do that. Most of life seems to be fighting, after all. What really irks me is that there is just so much uncertainty regarding the future of the world. It is a daunting choice to go to college, now more than ever. Putting myself in debt when I cannot even remotely predict if I will ever be able to pay it off.
“No Other Choice” intrigues me especially because it chooses to firmly believe in hope by the end, but is not afraid to portray despair as well. Yoo settles into despair, nearly gives up, but finds himself back in the realm of Hope as he kills off his contenders and finds a confidant in his wife. He knows exactly the career Che wants, and he makes it happen.
Ultimately, I suppose I will follow in Yoo’s footsteps. Not by murdering, of course, but by finding something I want to do and actually doing it. I do not know what else I would do.
Image is official publicity material.
The West Bend Current 
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