YNOT at the Movies

A gambling drama is hard to get into if the audience doesn't know how the game is played. That matters in the last chapter of a long-running series, because the revenge is settled at a poker table.

Director Choi Kook-hee ends South Korea's gambling franchise with "Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub" (타짜: 벨제붑의 노래 | South Korea 2026 | in Korean | 129 min.). It is the fourth film in the series and a standalone story with new characters, separate from "Tazza: The High Rollers" (2006), "Tazza: The Hidden Card" (2014) and "Tazza: One-Eyed Jack" (2019).

Two boys from poor families grow up side by side, and both are named Tae-young. Jang Tae-young (Byun Yo-han) is the one with the reputation for good fortune, a natural at cards and at winning people over. Park Tae-young (Roh Jae-won) grows up with a mother whose devotion to her religion runs to the extreme, and he carries a feeling of being lesser than his friend. After Seoul National University, the two start an online casino company whose sales climb past 100 billion won.

The public keeps turning its attention to Jang, and Park's resentment hardens into a plan. He takes over the company and the money, and with them the standing Jang earned. A trip to Vietnam finishes the job. Jang loses a card game, ends up $500,000 in debt and is caught by killers tied to Park, who torture him brutally. He lives, but only just.

With nothing left, Jang sinks into Vietnam's illegal card rooms. Gwak Dong-wook (Jo Woo-jin), an older gambler with a famous name, becomes his teacher and drills him in poker and self-control. The businessman who relied on luck becomes a calculating player.

When Jang and Park cross paths again, it is on an international poker circuit that runs through Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Money is only part of what the games decide now, and some of them put lives at risk. Kaneko (Ayaka Miyoshi), a corporate executive with yakuza backing, drags the rivalry into organized crime and boardroom pressure. Chairman Sasaki (Tsuyoshi Ihara), the head of a Japanese corporation and a former yakuza member, is the biggest bettor in these games.

The last game is Texas Hold'em, a departure from the hwatu games, the flower cards used in the Korean game Go-Stop, that the first two films revolved around. Jang and Park finally sit across the table from each other. Bluffing, psychological pressure and accusations of cheating build the tension, and Jang has to decide whether his final play is for revenge or redemption.

The last scene is more intense and interesting. The other games throughout the film are the perplexing ones, since it is hard to tell who won what and because of what. It's a film that is not quite engaging, especially if you don't know how the poker game for gambling works.

The revenge is well portrayed. What isn't clear is why Park betrays Jang in the first place, or how Jang survives after being tortured so brutally. Those two questions sit at the front of the story, and the revenge that follows starts from them.

It's a typical entertaining Korean crime drama, but if you don't know what's going on during a poker game, it will be hard to engage the audience. Anyone planning to see it should get familiar with the game before heading to the theater.

"Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub" opens in theaters on October 16, 2026.