Several people have one thing in common, they are searching for a bag that contains a large sum of money. But is there anyone who deserves this money at all?
Beasts Clawing at Straws is a playful movie that could remind me of a Coen brothers movie. You never feel that the movie gets too dark, even though many people are killed.
Everyone is searching for a bag that contains a large sum of money. And we get to see how the bag ends up in a wardrobe. And after that, the ball keeps on rolling.
It’s difficult to understand what is past and present for a while. But most of what you see take place in the past, and we follow the characters who try to survive everyday life. They have one thing in common; they are greedy and that is the theme of the movie.
What makes the movie feel somewhat harmless is that all the characters in the movie are some self-absorbed assholes. There is only one person who’s in a way clean, but this isn’t a character who gets many minutes on the screen. But is this character 100% pure, or will the temptation also swallow him?
The movie is entertaining and well-acted. But it has a big problem, all the characters are assholes. I couldn’t find one character to root for, except for the person who first finds the bag in the wardrobe. But it turns out that he too is self-absorbed. So he must also endure the consequences when he plays with greedy people who are willing to kill people to fill up their wallets.
There’s one thing I didn’t understand. I’m talking about the woman who owes money that suddenly appears just before her husband has to pay the money back to a dangerous loan shark. Is she there to pay back the money and then leave the country? Or is she just so greedy and self-absorbed that she tries to fool her husband one last time? I’m betting on the latter. She’s played by my favorite South Korean actress.
If you like South Korean movies, I recommend you to watch Beasts Clawing at Straws. But even though the movie is entertaining, I had trouble following only unsympathetic characters. And 90% of the characters in this movie are unsympathetic! So the movie failed to pull me fully in as I didn’t care who got the money.