Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020)

Beasts Clawing at Straws is the kind of crime thriller that feels like a perfectly engineered trap: you watch ordinary, desperate people reach for one “lucky” break, and the movie tightens the screws with wicked timing and pitch-black humor. Kim Yong-hoon tells the story in interlocking chapters that snap together with the pleasure of a well-built puzzle, letting suspense and surprise do the heavy lifting without ever losing sight of character. The performances—especially from Jeon Do-yeon, Jung Woo-sung, and Bae Sung-woo—give the chaos a human pulse, so every bad decision lands like it matters. Fair warning: it’s brutally violent and morally grim, but if you like twisty, adrenaline-clean thrillers with a sly sense of irony, this one pays off.

Beasts Clawing at Straws is clearly aiming for a nasty, twisty crime puzzle where desperate people keep grabbing for “easy money” and the story snaps shut like a trap. When it’s working, the cast sells the grime and panic, and the chaptered structure eventually clicks into a coherent web. But be warned: it leans hard on familiar noir/thriller beats, and some of the narrative juggling feels more busy than brilliant, so you’ll need patience before the payoff arrives. If you’re not in the mood for severe violence, bleak moral choices, and a plot that sometimes feels like it’s straining to outsmart you, this one may be more exhausting than thrilling.