It quickly appears to the viewer that the Louis Vuitton bag will play the main role in this thriller that promises to be black from the first moment. Dark suspense, paradox of colors placed with ingenuity throughout the film. Captivating puzzle in which each piece inhabits different characters, with different realities. Would the sweet Magnolia have been hit hard by the shock wave called Tarantino? Not so much… Even if some echoes could see through your head the long (and greasy) hair of Travolta or the perm Mars Attacks! by Samuel L. Jackson (and even this creepy watch story…) Lucky stryke assumes himself. It is whole. This is not the game of squid but rather that of hopscotch, just as violent.
Beasts Clawing at Straws, the story
After filing for bankruptcy, Joong-Man worked part-time in public baths. In a deplorable financial situation, he must meet the needs of his mother with Alzheimer's, his wife and daughter. At his workplace, he discovers a Louis Vuitton bag filled with money in a locker. He decides to take it. Tae-Young works as a customs officer. He borrows a large sum of money from Doo-man (Jeong Man-sik), a ruthless usurer, and lends the money to his girlfriend Yeon-Hee. She flees with the money, leaving Tae-Young in a very dangerous situation. The usurer begins to put pressure on Tae-Young. The corpse of a woman believed to be Yeon-Hee's is found. Meanwhile, Mi-Ran lost a lot of money in the stock market. She also has to deal with her abusive husband and she works as a bar hostess. One day, her client Jin-Tae offers to kill her husband. The relationships of these people, who have different desires, are revealed.
distribution
- Jeon Do-yeon as Yeon-hee
- Jung Woo-sung as Tae-young
- Youn Yuh-jung as Soon-ja
- Bae Seong-woo as Joong-man
- Shin Hyun-bin: Half-ran
- Jung Man-sik as Park Doo-man
- Jin Kyung as Young-sun
- Jung Ga-ram as Jin-tae
Technical fact sheet
- Directed and written by Kim Yong Hoon
- Based on the Japanese novel Beasts Clawing at Straws by Keisuke Sone (2011)
- Release date 25 January 2020 (IFFR), 19 February 2020 (South Korea)
- Duration 108 minutes
- Country South Korea
Impressions
Desperate beings who persist in spite of themselves to make the wrong decisions, slaves of a greed that becomes the center of their universe and for which they will evolve as puppets of their own destiny. Scenes filmed with skill and finesse that walk us groping and curiosity from one episode to another without bothering us in any way. Circumstances that transport us, that surprise us. Mix of intrigues, gore, cruelty with Korean sauce, Woody Allen style headaches. Non-chronological thriller that subtly hides the "before" and "after", whose complex story flows like an inexorable river. 
Actors filmed often in the foreground, who burst the screen with their presence and who radiate under the lights granted with dexterity to each sequence. Jeon Do-Yeon, magnificent, exuding a charisma that sublimates us. Jung Woo-Sung, who shows us once again that he is capable of playing any role. Bae Sung-Woo, who will make us smile just by his presence. Jeong Man-Sik, more equal to himself than ever. Shin Hyun-Bin, recently seen in Hospital Playlist and whose desperate role can only accentuate the crescendo of Lucky Strike Many of you will go looking for "the other" achievements of Kim Young-Hoon, just to watch all his films and to infiltrate again in this visual pleasure that we have witnessed. We discover with a mixture of disappointment and astonishment that this is his first film and that the only thing left for us to do is to wait for his next one. A perfect marriage between direction, script, photography, editing and actors.
