Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020) Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for every visit to the sauna
Take a Drink: shark tattoo
Take a Drink: every time Korean Lurch eats something
Do a Shot: every time the Luis Vuitton bag changes hands
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
There’s been a fairly unassailable top tier of Korean directors for at least the last decade- Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Ji-woon, Na Hong-jin, Lee Chang-dong, and Im Sang-soo.
Plus Hong Sang-soo if you like watching the same movie 3 times a year.
Beasts Clawing at Straws is a multi-threaded crime thriller that entangles a whole host of small time crooks, sauna employees, escorts, and gangsters in pursuit of a Luis Vuitton bag of money and a way out of their various unsatisfying lives.
A Toast
It isn’t until halfway through Beasts Clawing at Straws that you realize not all of the scenes are in chronological order, and where the time- and character-hopping could easily have become a mess, writer/director Kim Yong-hoon always keeps the stakes and story clear. This is simply audacious and incredibly assured storytelling from a beginner with the pen as well as the clapperboard- the man only has 3 other credits to his name, actually: 1 stunts and 2 whatever ‘content development’ means. It’s outrageous.
Now, this isn’t entirely a product of directorial verve- Kim is aided greatly by the all around strong ensemble work from the cast- they know exactly what kind of dark-humored noir they’re in, and all involved bring their own distinctive tics and character beats to the film.
Violence strikes out of nowhere and these characters do surprising but believable things, while the plot threads spin out in every direction but twist back in on themselves to form a perfect knot while your attention is directed elsewhere- in the end you realize just how airtight and deeply satisfying a film this has been.
Beer Two
Well, great ensemble work except perhaps for its biggest star, Jung Woo-sung, who exudes an awkwardness that’s played for comic effect, but at a different register than the rest of the cast. He’s a rare example of stand-out Korean films not being able to thread a tonal needle- not enough to ruin anything at all, but enough to be noticeable.
Verdict
Beasts Clawing at Straws is a twisty Coen Bros-esque tale with a Tarantino flair, but it’s no imitation- just a supremely well-executed debut from rising star Kim Yong-hoon.
