# Beasts Clawing at Straws (지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들)
**Beasts Clawing at Straws** (지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들, romanized Jipuragirado Jabgo Sipeun Jibseungdeul) is a 2020 South Korean crime thriller directed by Kim Yonghoon, in which the fortunes of several desperate people collide around a bag of stolen cash. It was Kim's first feature film, adapted from a Japanese novel, and it won the Special Jury Award in the Tiger Competition of the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam before its South Korean theatrical release on February 19, 2020.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) • [2](https://cinematechhaddad.com/Cinematech_All_Photos/CIFF42_pdfNo6.pdf) • [3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Kim Yonghoon, his feature debut; screenplay by Kim Yonghoon[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) |
| Source | Based on a novel of the same name by Japanese writer Keisuke Sone, published in 2011[2](https://cinematechhaddad.com/Cinematech_All_Photos/CIFF42_pdfNo6.pdf) |
| Premiere | World premiere at IFFR 2020 (January 25, 2020) in the Tiger Competition; winner of the Special Jury Award[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) |
| Korean release | February 19, 2020; 108 minutes; adults-only rating; 626,815 admissions[3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143) |
| Principal cast | Jeon Do-yeon (Yeon-hee), Jung Woo-sung (Tae-young), Bae Seong-woo (Joong-man), Youn Yuh-jung (Soon-ja), Jung Man-sik, Jin Gyeong, Shin Hyun-been, Jung Ga-ram[3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) |
| Genre / setting | Crime thriller and dark comedy set in the port city of Pyeongtaek[4](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/5146820.article) |
| Critical reception | 94% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 34 reviews; 49% audience score[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beasts_clawing_at_straws) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
The story begins, as the marketing tagline puts it, with a bag of money. Joong-man (Bae Seong-woo), a bankrupt man who works night shifts at a sauna and cares for his mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, finds a locker bag stuffed with bundles of cash and decides to keep it.[6](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=92095) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) Customs official Tae-young ([Jung Woo-sung](https://www.edgepedia.org/jung-woo-sung)) lent money, borrowed from a loan shark, to his girlfriend Yeon-hee ([Jeon Do-yeon](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeon-do-yeon)) as an investment; she disappears, the loan shark's pressure begins, and a woman's body that may be hers is found.[6](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=92095) Mi-ran ([Shin Hyun-been](https://www.edgepedia.org/shin-hyun-been)), ruined by stock losses and abused by her husband, works as a hostess, where a client named Jin-tae (Jung Ga-ram) offers to kill her husband for her.[6](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=92095)
Around this core the film adds a loan shark boss (Jung Man-sik), an undocumented migrant, a woman supporting her family, and the memory-lost mother Soon-ja ([Youn Yuh-jung](https://www.edgepedia.org/youn-yuh-jung)), all of whom deceive one another while chasing the bag as what they believe is their last chance to change their lives.[3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143) The opening scene, in which a [Louis Vuitton](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-vuitton) bag is stuffed into a locker, and the final shot of the same bag in someone else's hands bracket the whole ensemble story.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws)
## Structure and setting
**A looping, chaptered plot.** The film is divided into five chapters, each announced by a title card, and its timeline is non-linear: the opening locker discovery actually takes place toward the end of the story. Screen critic Wendy Ide wrote that the chapter structure is intended to disorientate rather than illuminate, and that the convoluted design only fully reveals itself in the final act.[4](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/5146820.article) Reviewers repeatedly placed the film in a lineage of multi-strand crime capers, citing the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers), [Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino), and *Pulp Fiction*'s temporal shuffles as touchstones the director reworks with his own twists.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beasts_clawing_at_straws) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/10/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review-south-korean-comedy-kim-yong-hoon)
**Pyeongtaek as a new noir space.** Kim Yonghoon said he needed a Korean setting distinct from the novel's Japan, and chose Pyeongtaek: a port city with an urban feel for the customs officer's working world, alongside entertainment districts and farming areas, giving the many characters room to move. He noted that Korean port noirs had usually been shot in Busan, Incheon, or Gunsan, so Pyeongtaek added something new.[6](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=92095)
## Production and cast
Kim Yonghoon had worked as an assistant to the director Jang Jin before making this film.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) The production company was B.A. Entertainment, with Megabox Plus M as distributor, cinematography by Kim Taesung, and editing by Han Meeyeon.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) • [3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143) Jeon Do-yeon, a Cannes best-actress winner for *Secret Sunshine*, played the amoral Yeon-hee, a role critics singled out.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) • [4](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/5146820.article)
## Release and reception
The film was originally scheduled to open in South Korea on February 12, 2020, and opened on February 19 instead, days after the first coronavirus cases drew public worry at its press screening, where Jung Woo-sung said he hoped the situation would improve quickly so that good films would not be overlooked.[8](https://mobile.newsis.com/view/NISX20200203_0000906974) • [3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143) It drew 626,815 admissions in South Korea, and Cine21's aggregated expert score was 6.50 against an audience score of 6.60.[3](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143)
Internationally, after the [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) premiere the film played festivals through 2020 and reached North American theaters in a limited release on October 21, 2020, distributed by Artsploitation Films, with streaming from December 15, 2020.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beasts_clawing_at_straws) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds 94% from 34 critics against a 49% audience score; critics praised its twist-filled construction and dark humor, with the Houston Chronicle noting its Coen brothers and Tarantino influences and the Guardian calling it a jet-black comedy in an arch, multi-strand thriller.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beasts_clawing_at_straws) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/10/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review-south-korean-comedy-kim-yong-hoon) Some reviewers found the violence hard to watch, including gender-based violence early in the film and a stabbing scene near the end.[9](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2020/12/15/london-east-asia-film-festival-beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/)
## Rotterdam and the moment for Korean cinema
At the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2020, the film competed in the Tiger Competition and won the Special Jury Award.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws) • [10](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=search&m_idx=49050&pyear=2020) Director Kim Yonghoon attended the festival as awareness of Korean cinema was rising after *[Parasite](https://www.edgepedia.org/parasite-2019-film)*'s Oscar nominations; he told *TIME* that he felt increased global interest from programmers and audiences alike, and called the moment a huge opportunity for the next generation of Korean filmmakers.[11](https://time.com/5779940/parasite-best-picture-oscars/)
## References
1. [Beasts Clawing at Straws, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2020/films/beasts-clawing-at-straws)
2. [Cinematech, CIFF 42 program notes: Beasts Clawing at Straws](https://cinematechhaddad.com/Cinematech_All_Photos/CIFF42_pdfNo6.pdf)
3. [지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들 상세정보, 씨네21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=54143)
4. ['Beasts Clawing At Straws': Review, Screen Daily (Wendy Ide, February 3, 2020)](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/5146820.article)
5. [Beasts Clawing at Straws, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beasts_clawing_at_straws)
6. [2019년 한국영화⑩ <지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들> 김용훈 감독, 씨네21](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=92095)
7. [Beasts Clawing at Straws review, The Guardian (August 10, 2021)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/10/beasts-clawing-at-straws-review-south-korean-comedy-kim-yong-hoon)
8. ['지푸라기' 정우성·전도연 "신종코로나 여파, 개봉 앞두고 걱정", 뉴시스 (February 3, 2020)](https://mobile.newsis.com/view/NISX20200203_0000906974)
9. [LKFF 2020: 'Beasts Clawing at Straws' Review, UCL Film & TV Society Journal](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2020/12/15/london-east-asia-film-festival-beasts-clawing-at-straws-review/)
10. [Beasts Clawing at Straws, Busan International Film Festival archive](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=search&m_idx=49050&pyear=2020)
11. [Parasite's Best Picture Oscar Is Historic. Is This the Beginning of a New Era in Film?, TIME (February 10, 2020)](https://time.com/5779940/parasite-best-picture-oscars/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2020–2022 films › Released 2020 to 2021*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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