April 15, 2026
My husband and I are movie fans, and we attend the cinema far more often than most couples. Recently, we were excited to check out a new film called No Other Choice, by the great Korean director Park Chan-wook. Several of our “film friends” had recommended No Other Choice to my husband as one of the best films of 2025. Others had recommended it to me because it is largely set at … a paper mill!
Yes, finally a world-class director has brought to the screen the intricately engineered technologies—the 1,200 meter-per-minute drama—the mind-boggling array of innovative products—and the MANY, MANY MURDERS for which our industry is so famous.
Don’t get me wrong; No Other Choice is a terrific movie. Yet there are two things you need to keep in mind when choosing whether to see it. First: it is in Korean with English subtitles, so if you’d prefer not to read while munching your popcorn, you may want to pass. Second: there really is a lot of murder, which is exactly what I expect from a Park Chan-wook film but not at all what I expect from the fine men and women of the Global Paper Industry.
There is one thing that I found very realistic: When our protagonist loses his job, he is completely distraught because he cannot picture himself as anything other than a papermaker. Others he meets in the industry agree that there is nothing they would rather do. They love their mills, they love their jobs, and they love paper. They feel they have “no other choice” than to … do what it takes … to stay in the paper industry. (I think they go a bit too far. Thank goodness it’s only a movie.)
Thank goodness again that you and I have TAPPI, which offers a much better (and non-criminal) way to reinforce your value to your mill, your company, and your industry: you can go to TAPPICon! Check out our article on page 23 to hear what real mill folks say about the benefits of attending this exciting event.
In this issue we also explore topics in innovative sustainability. I very much believe that our industry has “no other choice” but to embrace every new opportunity that sustainability can offer. New products, new markets, and new functionalities will propel us into a future that makes us proud to be papermakers.
I’ll be at TAPPICon in Columbus, OH, this April; I hope to meet many of you there. Just be ready when I ask, “Have you seen any good movies lately?”