Tazza: The High Rollers

Go-ni, a young man drawn by the promise of easy money, sits down at a hwatu card table with professional players passing through his town and loses everything he has. He steals from his own sister to keep playing and sinks further into debt until he is beaten and left for dead. Determined to recover what he lost, he sets out to win back his money and make his name in the underground gambling world, and to do so he must persuade Pyeong, one of the country's most skilled players, to take him on as a student. He soon becomes known as he travels from game to game, and Madam Jeong, who runs illegal gambling operations, takes an interest in him. He agrees to work with her, though the world he has entered is full of cheats, rivals and people who recognize a newcomer quickly.

Tazza: The High Rollers was released in 2006 and is the first film Choi Dong-hoon directed, ahead of Woochi: The Demon Slayer, The Thieves, Assassination, Alienoid and Alienoid: Return to the Future. Choi also wrote the screenplay, and Lee Seok-won and Seo Yeon produced. Cho Seung-woo plays Go-ni, with Kim Hye-soo as Madam Jeong, Baek Yoon-sik as Mr. Pyeong, Yoo Hae-jin, Kim Eung-soo and Kim Sang-ho among the credited cast of 66. The film took about 39 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from around 3,200 votes, and on TMDB 6.9/10 from roughly 102 votes, a small sample that points to a modest but consistent response.