Tazza: The High Rollers

Tazza: The High Rollers is a 2006 South Korean crime film directed by Choi Dong-hoon and based on Huh Young-man and Kim Se-yeong's manhwa of the same name. Produced by Sidus FNH and distributed by CJ Entertainment, the story revolves around a group of gambling drifters involved in the Korean card game Hwatu (lit. War of Flowers). It was a huge commercial and critical success, becoming one of South Korea's highest-grossing films and winning numerous awards. It was the second best-selling film of 2006 in South Korea, with 6,847,777 admissions nationwide.

Plot
In 1994, Goni (original name Kim Gon), a recent university graduate, has lost his entire savings, and money stolen from his family (his older sister), after being swindled by professional cheat gamblers (Park Moo Sik and Kwak Cheol Yong). In order to regain the money, from 1994 to 1995, Goni begins training in the art of trickery under one of the best gamblers in the country, Mr. Pyeong (also translated as Officer Pyeong). He is the top three gamblers along with Agui of Jeolla province and JJakgwi (One ear of Gyeongsang Province). He becomes well-known, wandering about different gambling places throughout the country with Pyeong. Madam Jeong, who runs an illegal gambling operation and plays the role of the architect of setting the plot in their gambling fraud schemes, begins to show interest in Goni. Over some philosophical differences in the art of gambling, Goni leaves Pyeong and begins working for Jeong, whom he also has a love tryst with. A concerned Pyeong, tries to discourage Goni to leave the gambling scene by cutting his finger, but while Goni tries to cut fingers, he accidentally meets Agui, who is known to kill his opponents after a gambling match with him. While in his usual gambling operations, Goni receives a call that Mr. Pyeong was found dead with his wrist sliced off (initially implied to be a result of losing the match against Agui, as Agui murders his opponent). An angry Goni, full of revenge, prepares to have a proper match with Agui to beat him. While he was having another gambling match that leads to the arrest of Madam Jeong, he meets another cardsharp Ko Gwang Ryol, who joins the dream team that would help Goni's match with Agui. Goni meets JJakgwi who he learns the art of lying from. Goni also develops a relationship with Hwa ran, and delivers money to his family. Before he meets Agui, he tries to beat Kwak Cheol-yong by beating at his own game, but is later caught, but Goni averses the risk by murdering Kwak Cheol-yong's squad in an impromtu car accident. Meanwhile raccoon finds that Madam Jeong is the real killer of Mr Pyeong, who ordered her bodyguard to kill for him. Ko Gwang Ryeol matches with Agui and gets hurt. Goni finally gets a match with Agui, with Madam Jeong helping Goni, and leads to Agui losing the bet. However, as the game progresses it was revealed Goni has suspected Madam Jeong making Agui and Madam Jeong lose all the things they have. After a fight in the train, Goni mysteriously disappears. Goni hiding his previous life ends with involving in another form of gambling.

Cast

 * Cho Seung-woo as Kim Goni
 * Kim Hye-soo as Madam Jeong
 * Yoo Hae-jin as Ko Gwang-ryeol
 * Baek Yoon-sik as Mr. Pyeong
 * Kim Yoon-seok as Agui
 * Kim Eung-soo as Kwak Cheol-yong
 * Kim Sang-ho as Park Moo-seok
 * Lee Soo-kyung as Hwa-ran
 * Park Soo-young as Go Ni's Uncle
 * Kim Jung-nan as Se-ran
 * Jo Sang-geon as Raccoon (detective)
 * Huh Young-man (cameo)

Home media
5 Points Pictures gave the film a two-disc DVD release in North America on September 18, 2012. The film is subtitled and includes nearly 3 hours of bonus features, including the making of the film, a comparison between the film and its source manhwa, and gambling tricks explained by a former professional gambler.

Box office
Tazza: The High Rollers was a huge critical success, becoming one of South Korea's highest-grossing films. It was the second best-selling film of 2006 in South Korea, with 6,847,777 admissions nationwide.

Critical reception
In a review for the San Francisco Chronicle, G. Allen Johnson described Tazza: The High Rollers as a "ton of fun, a totally irresistible tale of gambling, greed, love and violence. With gorgeous actors, designer clothes and thrilling action". Matt Zoller Seitz of The New York Times called it a "terrific film about the sensual energy and reckless optimism of youth" and compared the chemistry between Goni and Madam Jeong to that of characters in Jean-Luc Godard's early films.

Variety wrote that the film's long run time is hardly noticeable as "the gambling scenes, which in true Korean style often end in rough-and-tumbles, are restlessly shot in handheld closeup, while the non-gambling interludes, lensed more conventionally in good-looking widescreen, have a noir-ish flavor, with characters endlessly toying with each other." They noted that despite the complicated script "sounding tortuous on paper" and being difficult to grasp initially due to being told mostly in flashbacks, Tazza ties up all of its loose ends in the end. The magazine also praised the performances of Kim Hye-soo and Baek Yoon-sik.

Sequels
A sequel, titled Tazza: The Hidden Card, was directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol and starred Choi Seung-hyun, Shin Se-kyung, Kwak Do-won and Lee Hanee, with Yoo Hae-jin and Kim Yoon-seok reprising their roles. It began filming on January 2, 2014, and was released on September 3, 2014.

A second sequel, Tazza: One Eyed Jack, was released in 2019. It was directed by Kwon Oh-kwang and stars Park Jung-min and Ryoo Seung-bum.