Beasts Clawing at Straws

A desk clerk in a hotel-sauna, forced to care for his ailing mother, finds a huge bag of money left in a sauna. Unknown to him that the story behind the bag has a custom officer in debt, a loan shark, a scammer, an escort with an abusive husband and an illegal immigrant, all these characters cross paths and get themselves into increasingly deeper trouble as they attempt to cheat their way towards the ultimate payout.

What the critics say….

“Everything is neat and orderly on the surface in Kim Yong-hoon’s supremely satisfying and suspenseful South Korean thriller…but it’s a twisted mess of ambition, greed and desperation underneath - “Beasts Clawing at Straws” is obvious in its influences — a little Coen Brothers here, a little Tarantino there, all seasoned with a sprinkling of Hitchcock paranoia and the critique of Korean society glimpsed in “Parasite” - Cary Darling, Houston Chronicle

“The color of greed turns blood red in this enjoyably exaggerated romp involving a group of cash-strapped people and a bag full of money. Cheap gangsters, duplicitous dragon ladies, a mute tattooed assassin, get-rich-quick schlubs looking to score and a comical detective”…. - Jay Weissberg, Variety

“First-time writer-director, Kim Yong-hoon, has a promising command of black humour, seamy locations and extreme characters” - Edward Porter, Sunday Times