Directed by: Yoon Jong-bin (윤종빈) Starring: Yoon Kye-sang (윤계상), Ha Jung-woo (하정우), Yoon Jin-seo (윤진서), Ma Dong-seok (마동석), Kim Min-joo (김민주) Release Date: April 30th, 2008
Beastie Boys is set within Chungdahm-dong, a town in Seoul known for its high-end shopping district and luxury brand stores and cars. Where hair salons are open through the night, red-light establishments offering lucrative commissions and cash loans to those escaping hard times or seeking a quick path to the luxurious lifestyle can be found.
One such opportunity exists for male hosts. Working during the late night hours at exclusive clubs, their job has them socializing and playing drinking games with high-paying female clients. Within private rooms, hosts are lined up and selected to entertain based on their appearance, style, and personalities. The men often manage multiple tables at a time as they bend over backwards to satisfy the women’s every needs. Their services can extend to dates and other romantic encounters outside the bar for their most loyal patrons.
The female clients are themselves more often than not working within similar red-light industries. Having to cater and act subserviently to their own clients day in and day out, visiting the hosts seems to allow for some stress relief. And sharing in a special understanding from working within the same industry, they are sometimes able to establish romantic relationships with the men that resemble normality to a certain degree. Beastie Boys follows two male hosts, Seung-woo (Yoon Kye-sang) and Jae-hyun (Ha Jung-woo), as they attempt to manage some of these relationship inside and outside of their work.
We find out quickly that Jae-hyun (Ha Jung-woo) owes a large sum of money to his boss at the club (Ma Dong-seok) who is growing very impatient and beginning to threaten violence if not repaid soon. Jae-hyun also owes a lot of money to his girlfriend, Han-byeol (Kim Min-joo), who is also very much on his case about repayment. Han-byeol is the sister of Seung-woo (Yoon Kye-sang), a new recruit and “Ace” at the club, with whom Jae-hyun has taken under his wing. And when Seung-woo develops romantic feelings for his client Ji-won (Yoon Jin-seo), he offers to pay her debt to free her from working at a similar establishment. Having been warned by Jae-hyun that he could be getting scammed, Seung-woo develops a paranoia that he can’t shake.
The characters of Beastie Boys are all trying to climb out of holes they’ve found themselves in. Whether from bad luck or irresponsible life choices, the holes they’ve dug just get deeper and deeper. This leaves everyone desperate and fighting only for themselves. And working in an industry where putting on a superficial facade is the cornerstone of excellence and professionalism, manipulation is just part of the game. This is what makes Beastie Boys so interesting to watch. What happens when expert manipulators enter into deception and extortion territory? You’re never sure who is being truthful, or who is taking who for a ride. With all the emotions being toyed with, it becomes a pretty dangerous game these characters play.
Having just come off his legendary performance as the ruthless psycho-killer in The Chaser the previous year, Ha Jung-woo (The Closet, 2020) plays another very dark and unlikable character in Beastie Boys. Both he and Yoon Kye-sang’s (The Outlaws, 2017) character are selfish and even violent towards women here. But I was still, almost ashamedly, finding myself wanting them to get out of the holes they had dug for themselves.
Ha Jung-woo plays his role expertly and elicits a weird sense of sympathy for his character. So when his character Jae-hyun is getting beaten up by his formidable boss (Ma Dong-seok ) or when he gets caught in a mess he’s made for himself between his girlfriend and a client, I couldn’t help but want for him to escape without too much punishment. And former G.O.D. member Yoon Kye-sang shows a huge range as I rightly or wrongly wanted his character to succeed in both love and fortune. This sense of rooting for an “on-paper” undesirable type is what great acting is all about.
The two female leads brought a similarly interesting duality to their roles. Yoon Ji-seo (Revenger, 2018) was brilliant as Seung-woo’s love interest, Ji-won. She was honestly a bit awkward at first, but quickly grew into one of the most surprisingly complex characters in the movie. Also the character of Han-byeol, played by Kim Min-joo (Nameless Gangster, 2011), was written so well that I couldn’t make up my mind about her until the end. She’s all over the place emotionally but it makes sense in a weird way. The actresses deserve a ton of credit for delivering such alluring performances that were essentially the foundations for two male character arcs.
Beastie Boys is unique in its demystification of the male host industry. It peels away all the surface level glitz and glam and has to be one of the most realistic portrayals of its kind. Although being quite unique to east Asian cultures’ nightlife and entertainment industry, the entire script could come off as far fetched to those unfamiliar and might make for a difficult watch. But I can tell you that after enough experience in this part of the world, this stuff is very real!
Beastie Boys is an immensely intriguing early drama from writer director Yoon Jong-bin who would later go on to direct other awesome movies like Nameless Gangster (2011) and The Spy Gone North (2018). This is a must watch for fans of the actors, as well as those curious about the often unseen lives of those working in such illicit industries. If you ask, what’s the meaning of the title? I found an explanation from the hip-hop group ‘Beastie Boys’ themselves saying it was an acronym for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence. Without knowing for sure what Yoon’s intentions were, I’m going to go with this. Score: 7/10
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