There is a fair amount of hwatu gambling and it would help to know some about the game, in particular the ability to recognize card faces. It is also an environment of strongmen and women with its own violent rules. As Go Ni rises through the ranks, he eventually reaches the rarefied heights of the high rollers, where more money is bet than you can shake a stick at.
TAZZA THE HIGH ROLLERS PURKIXJWE PROFESSIONAL
And there lies the rub, for the small size of the cards allows conjuring professional gamblers to win consistently over innocent suckers. The game is no-limit hwatu, a sort of Korean poker, played with thumb sized cards, any of which easily hidden in the palm of your hand. Go Ni is a young man who gets involved in gambling, first as a perpetual loser, then as an apprentice to a master gambler, and finally as an accomplished high roller that is heavily compromised with its violent milieu. An overarching story does develop eventually even though the particulars pile up like a plate of noodles. It's safe to say that TAJJA will inspire many more gambling features, though it would be hard to surpass the originality and style of this film.Ī scrambled time-line leads to an initial sense of an impressionistic, messy plot that the viewer will have to try to put back together at the end. The energy of the narrative is matched by the plot's daunting complexity, but the film journeys into surprising areas.
The narrative almost manages to support a love story, though there's no room in a gambler's heart for true love.
TAZZA THE HIGH ROLLERS PURKIXJWE SERIES
The narrative is set out in a series of "lessons" any prospective gambler must learn with each lesson, the risks become increasingly challenging. As such, this often feels like THE STING, but with a more brutal core. Most intriguing of all is the Korean card game that frames the action - a game that attracts die-hard gamblers and a small group of cheats who live off the system.
TAJJA has style to burn, and from the very start, there's flashbacks, split-screens, hyperbolic action, and the expected doses of melodrama in the story of a young gambler's rise to fame. Hong Kong gambling flicks go in and out of fashion, but the genre is relatively new in South Korean cinema, and TAJJA can be extraordinarily entertaining.