In Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice (2025 South Korean film), there's a scene where Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is trying to kill his first target, Beom-mo, who's competing with him for a job at a paper company. During their conversation, a Korean song (Cho Yong Pil’s “Red Dragonfly” according to this FilmSpeak article) plays so loudly that it's almost impossible to hear what they're saying. The scene has this darkly comedic tension where Beom-mo mistakes Man-su for the man his wife is having an affair with, while Man-su is actually venting his frustration about why Beom-mo never listened to his wife's advice to pursue a career outside the paper industry.
I'm wondering if this particular song carries some cultural significance that would resonate with Korean audiences but might go completely unnoticed by international viewers. Does the song choice add another layer of meaning to the scene that non-Koreans would miss?
