Review: Beasts Clawing at Straws
Cinema & Digital Download: Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020)
Joong-man (Sung-Woo Bae) is underpaid and overworked at a sauna where he has to put up with a cocky young boss who is high on the power he holds over his staff, before going home to care for his sick mother.
At the end of a busy day at work he discovers a bag which has been left in one of the lockers, and upon opening it sees that it is full of cash.
Thinking that this could be the answer to all of his worries, he sneaks it out of his workplace and takes it home.
However, this is only part of a twisting narrative that intertwines the lives of many people who are in need of that money, including (but not limited to) Tae-young (Jung Woo-sung) who is out of his depth with a maniacal loan shark after his girlfriend ran off with the cash he borrowed, and Mi-ran (Hyun Been Shin) who uses every means necessary to get out of her violent relationship with her husband and her job as a hostess at a seedy club.
Low on action but high on suspense, Beasts Clawing at Straws draws you into the lives of each character, before slowly drip feeding information about them which can drastically change your empathy for the situation that they find themselves in.
Beautifully shot by director Yong-hoon Kim (who also wrote the screenplay from a novel by Keisuke Sone), this feature debut from him has me very interested in what he will do next.
The whole cast are great, with special mention to Jeon Do-yeon who…well, watch and you’ll see what I mean. Let’s just say that she steals every scene that she’s in.
Constantly leaving you never quite knowing what is going to happen next, this Korean crime/drama/thriller evokes shades of Tarintino-esque narrative twists and long dialogue scenes which keep you hooked until the very end.
Blue Finch Film Releasing presents Beasts Clawing At Straws on Curzon Home Cinema 13 August and on Digital Download 23 August.
Review by Dave from a streaming link kindly supplied by Blue Finch Film Releasing via Witchfinder PR.
