Beasts That Cling to the Straw 2020 South Korea Beasts Clawing at Straws | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The cast. It's kind of silly to call this a director's "debut". You don't get a cast like this if you're some struggling 'I wanna make a movie' director. It was his turn in the assembly line that is Korean cinema. That's not a bad thing. It's why 'debuts' like this look and flow as good as anything that comes out of South Korea. Of course Jeon Do-yeon is magnificent. She shows up about halfway through and pwns everybody. Jung Woo-sung is also surprisingly good. He must have taken acting lessons somewhere along the way. I always enjoy Bae Seong-woo in a laid back Jeremy Piven kind of way. And on and on. I would give this 4 1/2, maybe even 5 stars, if the baddy bad guy didn't stoop to bad eating-acting as a way to demonstrate that he is the baddy bad guy. It's one of the stupidest tropes of cinema world wide. Maybe it's the director's fault but I usually blame the actor for not having the skill to present as evil without also being repulsive. This has a "Fargo" vibe to it. A bunch of desperate people and a bag of cash. Very well done and entertaining. Not bad for a debut! Summary: A struggling restaurant owner, caring for his sick mom, finds a bag of cash in a sauna locker, while a customs officer gets into trouble when his girlfriend runs off with money he borrowed from a loan shark. |