TRAILERS
Official US Trailer for Korean Crime Thriller 'Beasts Clawing at Straws'
by Alex Billington
October 14, 2020
Source: YouTube
"Bite, before you get bitten." Artsploitation Films has debuted a US trailer for a Korean crime thriller titled Beasts Clawing at Straws, marking the feature directorial debut of Kim Yong-hoon, who used to work in development at CJ Entertainment before getting into filmmaking. The film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year, where it won a Special Jury Award. A struggling restaurant owner, caring for his sick mom, finds a bag full 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. A group of people violently scheme to get their hands on the elusive Luis Vuitton bag stuffed full of cash. Described as a "witty thriller is a beautifully constructed puzzle that with each double-cross, the pieces fall into place." Starring Jung Woo-sung from Asura: City of Madness and Jeon Do-yeon, plus Bae Sung-woo, Yun Yuh-jung, Jung Man-sik, and Jin Gyeong. This is an odd trailer, there's so much going on it's not easy to make sense of it. Looks brutal.
Here's the official US trailer (+ posters) for Kim Yong-hoon's Beasts Clawing at Straws, from YouTube:
A Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with cash sends a group of hard-luck lowlifes on a desperate chase for fortune in this pitch-black neo-noir crime thriller. Fish-mongering gangsters, a greasy cop, an "innocent" gym cleaner, a scheming prostitute, her wife beater of a husband, her ruthless boss and her clueless boyfriend all violently plot to get their hands on the elusive bag. First time director Kim Yong-hoon’s witty thriller is a beautifully constructed puzzle that with each double-cross, the pieces fall into place. Beasts Clawing at Straws, also known as Beasts That Cling to the Straw or Lucky Strike (in France only), is both written and directed by Korean filmmaker Kim Yong-hoon, making his feature directorial debut after working for CJ Entertainment previously (read his story). Based on the novel by Keisuke Sone. This first premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year. Artsploitation Films will release Beasts Clawing at Straws in US theaters starting October 21st, then on VOD starting December 15th this fall. Visit their official website.
4 Comments
1
Great title and nice looking film. Nice touch making the LV upside down.
DAVIDPD on Oct 14, 2020
2
David said about it all that I wanted to say. Can't wait to see it ...
shiboleth on Oct 14, 2020
3
Actually this did have a limited theatrical release with English subtitles in 2 CGV theaters in California (LA, Buena Park) from February 21st~March 15th, 2020. I saw the movie at CGV LA. This was before it got US distribution from Artsploitation, so it must have been either the Korean distributor Megabox Plus M or 815 Pictures (who got the North American deal) who put out that limited release, or both. Artsploitation's distribution is like a second life of this movie in the US, I suppose.
chltjwls on Oct 15, 2020
4
Oh wow, I had no idea! Thank you for the info. It makes sense that they're trying to give it a proper release again this fall, especially with the pandemic in the time since that original run.
Alex Billington on Oct 15, 2020
New comments are no longer allowed on this post.
FEATURED POSTS
FOLLOW FS HERE
Follow Alex's main account on Twitter:
Add our posts to your Feedly › click here
Get all the news sent on Telegram 
LATEST TO WATCH