' NO OTHER CHOICE ' : FILM HONOURS PARK CHAN-WOOK

AFTER U.S. studios balked, Park Chan-wook filmed his new grisly hit at home.

Park Chan-wook is one of Asia's most famous directors, an auteur as much beloved for his complex, often critical visions of his home country of South Korea as for scenes of stomach-churning horror.

But when Park started work on '' No Other Choice, '' he really wanted to direct it as an American film, so much so that he spent 12-frustrating years trying to get financing from Hollywood studios.

The source material, Donald E. Westlake's 1997 horror thriller novel, '' The Ax,'' was based in the United States, '' so it felt just natural to me,'' he said. '' I didn't put too much other thought in it.''

Beyond the novel's suburban East Coast setting, the plot and lead character also felt particularly American to the Korean director ; a manager of a paper company has his life upended by corporate downsizing, and to secure a new job, he sets about murdering his rivals in increasingly gruesome ways.

'' This is a story about the capitalist system, '' Park said. '' I thought it would be best told in America, since America is the heart of capitalism.''

Tightfisted studios in the United States had other ideas, however, and Park ultimately made the film in South Korea.

The World Students Society thanks Robert Ito.