Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020)

Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020)

starring Sung-woo Bae, Jung Woo-sung, Jeon Do-yeon

written and directed by Kim Yong-hoon

This movie is broken down into the following six chapters, which vary in length.

Chapter 1: Debt

Chapter 2: Sucker

Chapter 3: Food Chain

Chapter 4: Shark

Chapter 5: Lucky Strike

Chapter 6: Money Bag

Joong-man (Sung-woo Bae), an employee at a men's sauna, finds a Louis Vuitton bag filled with money while he is cleaning up at the end of the day. He puts the bag in the storage area. He goes home to his wife and mother, who do not get along and whose bickering makes his life miserable. He goes back to the sauna to get the bag a couple days later, after he has been fired.

Tae-yung (Jung Woo-sung), a customs official, owes money to the mob. He has a plan to get the money needed to repay his debt. He has found someone, a sucker, whom he plans to rob. He ropes his cousin into helping him. Things get complicated when he is approached by a policeman who is looking for the man he is trying to rob.

Mi-ran (Hyeon-bin Shin), a prostitute who is regularly beaten by her husband, meets a client who wants to help her. It is the client's idea. He acts on his plan without warning her. Things get complicated when he starts having second thoughts about what he has just done.

Thoughts

This movie has also been titled Lucky Strike in some places.

I thought I would just watch the beginning of this movie but I quickly got sucked in. It was more than just the plot. It was also the characters and the way the different plot threads were layered together. It took a while for the various stories to link up but eventually they did. The bag of money figures into all three stories.

There is a fair amount of violence in this movie. Not all of the violence occurs on screen. Many of the players are dead by the time the movie ends. Just about everyone that plays a significant role in this movie experiences some violence, either on the giving or the receiving end.

I can't try to explain this movie further. It would give away too much. I do like the "poetic" way in which it wraps up. This is a crime movie but it also a fable of sorts.