Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice: When Can You Stream The New Thriller?

Park Chan-wook is back with a gleefully grotesque, darkly funny thriller, and it is doing laps around the fall festival circuit. Here is where 'No Other Choice' has been, how it is performing, when you might stream it, and whether this is finally the one that gets Park his long-overdue Oscar.

The rollout and the receipts

'No Other Choice' bowed at Venice on August 29, 2025, then crossed the Atlantic for its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5. It kept the momentum through October in the States, hitting the New York Film Festival on October 12 and the 61st Chicago International Film Festival on October 25. In other words: prime slots all month long.

By the end of that two-month world tour, the film had banked more than $18 million according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), marking the biggest opening of Park Chan-wook's career. It topped his previous high-water marks set by 'Decision to Leave' and 'The Handmaiden'. Not bad for something this brazenly weird and very funny.

So, when can you stream it?

Park's last feature, 'Decision to Leave', had its U.S. theatrical debut on October 14, 2022, then hit streaming on December 9, 2022 via Mubi. If the playbook repeats, 'No Other Choice' should land on a streaming platform by early December too — think no later than December 10, 2025. That is not official, just reading the tea leaves from past releases.

On the industry side: Neon picked up North American rights in June 2025, and Mubi grabbed international rights. Neon frequently routes titles to Hulu after a PVOD window, so a Hulu drop in the U.S. would make sense once early digital rentals are done. Again, nothing confirmed yet — but the path is pretty clear.

Awards watch: could this break Park's Oscar drought?

Park has been leaving stylish wreckage behind him since the early 2000s. The vengeance trilogy — 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' (2002), 'Oldboy' (2003), and 'Lady Vengeance' (2005) — made him a global name, and later films like 'The Handmaiden' (2016) and 'Decision to Leave' (2022) only cemented it. 'Decision to Leave' earned him a Best Director win at Cannes 2022, a Palme d'Or nomination, and a shortlist spot for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

Despite all that, he has never actually won an Oscar. He has stacked up big nominations across Berlin, Cannes, and Venice, and he did take home the Golden Bear in 2011 for the short 'Night Fishing', which he co-directed with his brother Park Chan-kyong. But the Academy has stayed just out of reach.

This time might be different. With a clean 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a wall of critical buzz, 'No Other Choice' feels like a real contender for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards. I would not bet against it.

Quick facts

• Director: Park Chan-wook
• Source material: 'The Ax' (1997) by Donald Westlake
• Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won
• Runtime: 139 minutes
• Distributor: CJ Entertainment
• Budget: $12.2 million
• Box office: $18.3 million
• Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
• IMDb: 8

'No Other Choice' is currently in theaters in South Korea. Do you think Park finally nabs Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards? Which 2025 releases have the muscle to challenge it in 2026?