Film

Beasts Clawing at Straws

Name: Beasts Clawing at Straws
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Jung Woo-sung, Bae Sung-woo, Jeong Man-sik, Yoon Je-moon

Crime

A South Korean noir where a bag of cash dropped in a sauna becomes the gravitational center for a constellation of desperate people. Everyone wants it; everyone has everything to lose. Smartly plotted, darkly funny, and built on the principle that bad luck is contagious. It's for anyone who loved Parasite's ability to find grimness in ordinary circumstance.

TMDb rating

3.5

If you liked this

Parasite2019

A masterclass in how class resentment and desperation create narrative momentum. Every scene feels like it's tightening a knot. The tonal shifts between comedy and tragedy are precise and devastating.

But If you've already seen it, there's nothing new here—just confirmation that Bong Joon-ho is brilliant. Some find the messaging heavy-handed.

Burning2018

A slow-burn mystery about envy and class in contemporary Seoul. Like Beasts, it finds profound unease in ordinary interactions and trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity and dread.

But It moves at a deliberate pace that can feel glacial. The answer to its central question is never confirmed, which frustrates viewers seeking closure.

Mother2009

Bong Joon-ho again, but this time a tightly wound crime thriller where a mother will do anything for her son. The plotting is intricate, the moral calculus is queasy, and it never stops moving.

But It's darker and more morally murky than Beasts. Some viewers find the protagonist's actions unforgivable rather than sympathetic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Beasts Clawing at Straws

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Happiness of the Katakuris2002

Both films find the strange and darkly comic in situations where ordinary people are cornered by circumstance. Both have a deadpan acceptance of chaos.

A family runs a remote roadside inn where guests keep dying. A darkly comic musical horror film that finds profound humanity in the grotesque. Like Beasts, it understands that desperation can be both funny and tragic.

But It's a Japanese musical-horror-comedy hybrid that defies easy categorization. The tonal whiplash—singing corpses, stop-motion sequences, genuine emotion—won't work for everyone. Very strange.

The Handmaiden2016

Park Chan-wook's jewelled crime caper about con artists and double-crosses in 1930s Korea. Gorgeous, intricate, endlessly rewatchable. The plot twists land with real force.

But The structure is deliberately confusing—scenes repeat with different context. Some find this clever; others find it exhausting. Also quite sexually explicit.

A Bittersweet Life2005

A hitman discovers his employers have betrayed him and sets about revenge with methodical grace. Gorgeously shot, violent without being gratuitous, and built on a central moral transgression that changes everything.

But It's more action thriller than mystery. The violence, while artfully done, is still sustained and brutal. Slower second half than first.

Memories of Murder2003

Bong Joon-ho's serial killer procedural set in 1980s South Korea. The mystery is real; the characters are vivid; the ending is unforgettable. Every scene earns its place.

But It's a long film with a deliberate pace. The ending offers no catharsis, which some experience as unsatisfying. Contains graphic violence.

Oldboy2003

A man is imprisoned for fifteen years for no reason he can understand, then released to hunt down his captor. The revenge plot twists brutally; the action is kinetic; the moral bankruptcy is total.

But It's genuinely shocking in ways that can feel exploitative. The famous hammer fight is exhilarating and horrifying in equal measure. The ending is bleak.

The Outlaws2017

When a detective tries to catch a gang leader, their collision spirals into urban mayhem involving loan sharks, money, and competing criminal hierarchies. Visceral, funny, and crammed with detail.

But It's messier and more chaotic than Beasts—plot threads don't always resolve tidily. Some find the tonal shifts between comedy and violence jarring rather than clever.

A Prophet2009

A young man enters prison as nobody and exits as a power broker through cunning and ruthlessness. The rise is inexorable; the political machinery is intricate; the cost is never soft-pedaled.

But It's a French film in French, so subtitles are required. The violence is matter-of-fact in a way that can numb rather than engage. Long and deliberate.

GoodFellas1990

Both understand that crime is primarily about people scrambling for dignity and control. Both depict it as a system where everyone's desperate and no one's innocent.

A sprawling portrait of organized crime that operates on the principle that the money is never the real motivation—it's the power, the status, the belonging. Energetic, funny, and morally rotten.

But It's a 1990 American film, so it exists in every streaming canon already. The violence is casual and the misogyny is baked in. It's almost too familiar.

Come and See1985

Both films understand that desperation and circumstance can strip away morality. Both refuse to sentimentalize human suffering or offer easy answers. Both earn their bleakness.

A Soviet war film following a young partisan as he witnesses atrocity. It's brutal, immersive, and operates on the principle that cinema can show us the true cost of human conflict.

But It is genuinely traumatic to watch. Not for spectacle or entertainment—it's an ordeal. The suffering is unrelenting and the film offers no comfort or redemption.