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Beasts That Cling to the Straw
Beasts Clawing at Straws
Lucky Strike / Beasts Clinging at Straws
South Korea 2020
produced by Billy Acumen, Kin Jin-Sun for B.A. Entertainment, Megabox Plus M
directed by Kim Yong-hoon
starring Jeon Do-yeon, Jung Woo-sung, Bae Sung-Woo, Youn Yuh-jung, Jeong Man-sik, Jin Kyung, Shin Hyun-been, Jung Ga-ram, Park Ji-hwan, Kim Jun-han, Heo Dong-won, Bae Chin-Woong, Kwon Hyuk-bum
screenplay by Kim Yong-hoon, based on a novel by Keisuke Sone, music by Kang Nene
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Three at first sight totally unrelated stories:
Joong-man (Bae Sung-woo), a lowly cleaner at a sauna, finds a bag full
of money in one of the lockers, a bag that remains unclaimed for several
days, and even though he really could use the cash, he at first
resists temptation to just grab it, just in case the rightful owner comes
to claim it. But then his superior (Heo Dong-won), an arrogant upstart
half his age, fires him on a whim, upon which he decides to grab the money
after all, feeling he deserves it. And then when his problems really start
...
Tae-young (Jung Woo-sung), an immigration officer, owes half a fortune
to loan shark Park (Jeong Man-sik), money that he can't pay back since his
girlfriend Yeon-hee (Jeon Do-yeon) skipped town with his dough. Now he
makes up scam after scam with his pal Carp to scam people out of their
money just to pay Park back, but none works, and Park's getting restless
and has Tae-young and Carp followed. And then, out of the blue, Yeon-hee
returns and tries to get on his good side again - but she has an
unexpectedly homicidal side to her ...
Prostitute Mi-ran (Shin Hyun-been) can't bear being beaten up by her
husband anymore, so she uses one of her johns, Jin-tae (Jung Ga-ram), to
kill him - but make it look like an accident so she can collect the
insurance money. Thing is, Jin-tae kills the wrong guy, then loses his
nerve and wants to go to the police, so Mi-ran has to kill him. However,
she finds an unexpected ally in her boss, who helps her kill her husband
for real and get rid of the body. But her boss, who just happens to be
Yeon-hee from the story above, isn't exactly in it for altruism but for
the insurance money ...
Even if Beasts Clawing at Straws is based on a Japanese
novel, the story has something unmistakingly Korean to it, as it seems
South Korean filmmakers (and I know I'm over-generalizing here) have long
made an artform out of thrillers throwing everyday losers into situations
much too big for them without identifying any clear heroes or villains
(actually a popular ploy in film noir cinema of old as well), and this is
a very good example for this. That's not at all to say Beasts Clawing
at Straws is an at all formulaic movie though, as its story is full of
very surprising twists and turns, down to the point how the three stories
are tied together, and the way the stories are told in an only seemingly
parallel manner is quite masterful, though without drawing too much
attention to the narrative device, instead focusing on the actual story.
And a strong cast and subtle directorial effort really help make this one
pretty awesome thriller.
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