Sadly, he resorts to stealing the money his sister received in her divorce settlement, and, unsurprisingly, he loses every last cent.Īshamed at his behavior and unable to face his family, Goni embarks on a quest to find the man who scammed him and get all the money back – and then some. Unfortunately, Goni blows all the money he’s saved, and like anyone with a burgeoning gambling problem, he decides he needs to get more money to gamble with in order to dig himself out of a very deep financial hole. The game of choice is sotda, which utilizes tiny hwatu cards and looks a heck of a lot like baccarat or blackjack.

One night, he naively joins an after hours card game at his workplace. And Tazza: The High Rollers definitely captures the spirit of some of the best gambling films, while still bringing to the genre a few tricks of its own.īased on a comic book by Huh Young-Man and Kim Se-Young, this award-winning 2005 film tells the story of a young man named Goni (Cho Seung-Woo) and his fateful downward spiral into the world of illegal gambling. Whether your point of reference is The Sting, God of Gamblers, Rounders, or - God help you - My Wife is a Gambling Maestro, movies about gambling can be a heck of a lot of fun. Tazza wins points for style, energy, and engaging performances from its lead actors, culminating in a fun, if somewhat overlong ride. (left) Kim Hye-Soo and (right) Cho Seung-Woo at the table in Tazza: The High Rollers.Ĭho Seung-Woo, Kim Hye-Soo, Yoo Hae-Jin, Baek Yoon-Sik, Kim Eung-Soo, Kim Sang-HoĪ young man catches the gambling bug and finds himself caught up in a freewheeling, yet increasingly dangerous conman odyssey.

Tazza the high rollers