"Chuseok means Tazza."
The franchise that began in 2006 and long reigned as a Chuseok box office staple among adult moviegoers in South Korea is dealing its final hand. "Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub," unveiled to the press on the 9th, draws attention for putting Texas hold'em front and center in place of hwatu, the traditional Korean card game, and for expanding its setting from Korea to Japan and Vietnam. A series running for two decades has reshuffled the deck to target a new generation and global audiences.
The film opens with the friendship and betrayal between Jang Tae-young (Byun Yo-han), who succeeded on innate intelligence and luck, and Park Tae-young (Noh Jae-won), who carved out his place through persistent effort. The two close friends reach a point of no return as Park's jealousy and sense of inferiority take hold, and Jang loses everything, including his business and his love. After narrowly surviving a brush with death, he barely escapes with his life in Vietnam, where he happens upon his mentor Kwak Dong-wook (Jo Woo-jin).
When Jang watches with pity as Kwak walks away from a poker table after losing his money, Kwak tells him, "In poker, folding is everything." Taking those words to heart, Jang learns poker while preparing his revenge, eventually emerging as a "tazza," a card sharp with his own approach to the game. A Korean-Chinese contract killer (Yoon Kyung-ho) pursuing Jang appears as a scene-stealer, supplying laughs between stretches of taut tension.
The film's most intriguing element is how it examines the desires of the loser. Casting the two men as Lucifer, the ace of spades, and Beelzebub, the two of spades, the relationship between the naturally gifted and fortunate Jang and Park, who feels he can never surpass him no matter how hard he works, recalls Mozart and Salieri in "Amadeus." Friendship curdles at some point into jealousy and inferiority, and ultimately leads to a table set for revenge.
Byun, in particular, quite literally becomes Jang Tae-young in this film. He carries the character's life from beginning to end, from a genius computer engineering student at Seoul National University to a successful businessman to a man cast into ruin by a friend's betrayal. He handles a wide range, from the perfection of a "hexagonal man" who is loved, academically gifted, handsome and business-savvy, to the desperation of a man who has lost everything and clings to revenge.
He wears a school uniform convincingly in the high school scenes. He had said he would not put on a uniform again after his previous film "Snow White Must Die" — but director Choi Kook-hee persuaded him otherwise. From fresh-faced student to successful entrepreneur, fallen man and finally a card sharp returning to the poker table for revenge, he carries the shape-shifting character with credibility.
Above all, what shines in this film is his aura as a solo lead. From start to finish, the camera follows Jang, and his success and downfall, love and betrayal, desire and revenge become the film's narrative. He even takes on bed scenes explicit by the standards of recent commercial films, expressing the character's desire and appeal with his whole body. Having learned psychological tactics and card handling from actual hold'em players, he draws the assessment that when he sits at the poker table, viewers see the character Jang Tae-young before they see the actor. Byun shoulders the final hand of a 20-year series alone and turns the entire film into his own stage.
Noh, too, completes Park Tae-young — a tangle of affection for his friend, inferiority and hunger for success — as a complex figure rather than a simple villain. The series also widens its scope with the addition of Japanese actors Tsuyoshi Ihara and Ayaka Miyoshi, familiar to global viewers through Netflix and other platforms, and Vietnamese national star Hong Dao.
In short, "Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub" has all the virtues of a popcorn movie. Brisk pacing, appealing characters, the scale of moving between Japan and Vietnam and the tension generated by hold'em follow one after another without pause. Following Byun through the electric thrill of the gambling table, satisfying action, the pleasure of revenge and a brief but intense romance, 129 minutes fly by. That is why it is being called a properly made popcorn movie, ideal for enjoying with a bucket of popcorn. Opens on the 23rd. Rated for adults only. 129 minutes.
