The extended cut (157 minutes) of director Park Chan-wook's 'No Other Choice' will be unveiled on tvN on the first night of the Chuseok holiday. The story of a laid-off family man who eliminates his competitors one by one to find re-employment returns a year after its theatrical release, now 19 minutes longer. During this Chuseok holiday, tvN will present both films making their TV premieres and Disney·Marvel titles, with the extended cut of 'No Other Choice' opening the lineup.

■ A 25-Year Papermaking Expert and the Narrow Door Mansas Faces

Lee Byung-hun plays Mansu. In the film, Mansu is a papermaking expert who has spent 25 years at a single paper company, devoting his life to making paper. His expertise, built over decades in one field, is a source of pride within the company, but it becomes a stumbling block the moment he leaves. Positions available to Mansu in the paper industry are few and can be counted on one hand, and everyone eyeing those spots comes from the same industry with careers just like his. The film follows the choices Mansu makes in front of this narrow door.

The film tells the story of Mansu, a breadwinner suddenly fired from his job, as he struggles to find work again. His extreme scheme of eliminating competitors to create vacancies wears the shell of a black comedy, but its starting point lies in the reality of middle-aged professionals pushed out of the re-employment market. Based on Donald E. Westlake's novel 'The Ax,' the film drew 2.94 million moviegoers in theaters.

■ 138 Minutes to 157: What the Added 19 Minutes Fill In

The extended cut builds up Mansu's motivation more thickly. The theatrical version ran 138 minutes, while the extended cut adds 19 minutes for a total of 157. The added 19 minutes are largely devoted to showing what Mansu was trying to protect. Scenes were expanded showing the job training center Mansu attends, his family's daily life, and his relationship with his wife Miri (Son Ye-jin), and new family-related moments were included, such as Mansu, Miri, and daughter Riwon (Choi So-yul) leaving her cello practice room.

The roles of surrounding characters also grew. New episodes involving Oh Jin-ho (Yoo Yeon-seok) and Si-won (Kim Woo-seung) were added, some existing scenes were given longer pacing, and new dialogue was inserted.

The job training center scenes show the position Mansu is in. The sight of a 25-year papermaking veteran sitting in a space where he must revise his resume and prepare for interviews concretely fills in the post-layoff time that passed quickly in the theatrical version. The daughter's cello practice room scene shows what kind of life Mansu is trying to protect. Because expenses like music lessons are the first things to cut when household finances waver, the everyday life of his family is exactly what Mansu cannot give up — and in this way, extreme choices and ordinary daily life intertwine within a single frame.

■ For Theatergoers, a 'Re-reading'; for First-Time Viewers, 'Accumulated Context'

If the theatrical version briefly presented family as the motivation driving Mansu, the extended cut takes its time showing how that motivation formed. For audiences who already saw it in theaters, it is a version that allows them to re-read Mansu's choices from a different angle; for first-time viewers, it becomes a version in which the characters' context builds up before the events unfold.

※ Exact broadcast information should be confirmed through the official programming schedule on the day of broadcast. This article is intended to provide information about the work and its programming, and does not encourage viewing of or subscription to any particular channel or service. AI provided partial assistance.