There appears to be something of a new crime sub-genre on the rise in Korea. Too smooth and slick to fall into a class with the Godfather's and Election's of the world yet too serious minded and character based to fall into the action-entertainment mold, these are films more interested in the criminals than on the crimes and the criminals are universally attractive, if tormented. A Dirty Carnival falls into this mold, as does the upcoming Song Kang-Ho starring The Show Must Go On. The undeniable champion of the type, however, is the sleeper-blockbuster Tazza: The High Rollers.
The sophomore film from the director of crime caper The Big Swindle was projected to be a mid-level film in its native Korea, not a particularly large or high profile picture but one with a gifted, attractive and popular enough young cast that there were modest hopes for success. Success? Yes. Modest? Not at all. Much like the previous year's unexpected hit The King and the Clown, word of mouth on Tazza spread like wildfire and the film expanded from market to market simply refusing to leave screens once it arrived until, at the final tally, it had found its way into the top five all time Korean box office successes. And it's not too hard to see the attraction. The director's previous film drew comparisons to Tarantino with its slick production values, rapid fire editing and stylishly self conscious dialogue and he has built on his strengths since then. Tazza falls closer to Guy Ritchie territory than Tarantino, but it is far less frenetic and features a broad range of something Ritchie's films have always lacked: actual characters with substantial depth. That it's pretty and stylish as all hell as well certainly doesn't hurt, either.
Tazza tells the story of Goni, a young uneducated factory worker, as he climbs the ranks of high stakes gamblers playing hwatu, an old Korean card game based on a unique deck of small, flower decorated cards. We meet Goni just as he enters into the world of illegal, high stakes gambling, the young man being suckered into a rigged game at the factory where he works. Cleaned out of his life savings and desperate to win it back Goni steals a sizable amount of money from his family, loses that too, and then goes on a quest to hunt down the man who swindled him, making his way from hidden table to gaming den across the country in the process. Eventually Goni is taken on as a pupil by a master gambler on condition that he quit gambling once he earns back the money stolen from his family. He succeeds in earning the money back, of course, but refuses to quit, instead taking on a job as a professional gambler working for a beautiful and devious madame in her illegal gaming house / brothel. Goni seems happy in this life until he learns that his old master has been killed, apparently by a rival master, at which point he sets off on a quest to find his master's killer and take revenge.
Though it is told in flashbacks that break the story up into pieces presented out of chronological sequence Tazza breaks down neatly into two even halves, each of them built around some sort of quest for Goni. There is the early quest to gain skill and reclaim his lost money followed by the quest for revenge. There are diversions along the way, of course, friendships and betrayals, but Goni's core purpose is quite simple which gives the film a clarity of purpose as far as the narrative is concerned. What is a little less clear, however, is what sort of message the film is trying to deliver -- if any. The film is glossy and entertaining, Goni and his associates appealing throughout, but there seems to be a basic breakdown between the tone of the film and the underlying issues. Goni, after all, has a raging addiction to gambling -- one that has consumed and destroyed his life -- that remains strangely unaddressed throughout while with one possible exception his relationships with the people around him reveal both Goni and his associates to be pretty much entirely amoral. The game and, by extension, the acquisition of wealth by any means is the only thing that matters to any of these people and there's something just a little bit off in the way these issues are glossed over and then simply ignored.
That said the film is a technical marvel and succeeds entirely in its desire to entertain. The film itself is simply gorgeous, beautifully shot to take full advantage of sets and natural locations that flawlessly balance style with realism. The editing still boasts some clever tricks and relies on rapid cutting but it is never obtrusive, to the contrary the editing style bolsters the storytelling. And the cast is simply flawless, every one of them turning in impressively nuanced performances. Clocking in at a hundred and forty minutes Tazza is at least half an hour longer than it really needs to be but when there are this many good moments and this many impeccable performances I certainly wouldn't want to be the man who had to decide which thirty minutes would have to go.
Tazza, in the end, falls into this odd region somewhere between arthouse and pulp entertainment. It moves too slowly and deliberately to be an action film, it is too pretty to fall into the gritty crime mold and it glosses over too many serious issues to be considered an art film. It is without doubt a film for the masses but it is one that assumes the masses are just a little bit more thoughtful than most and willing to take their time getting to know a range of characters provided the story is well told and, in this case, that assumption proved to be exactly correct.
The new Korean DVD release is simply excellent. The film is given a stellar anamorphic transfer, crisp and clean with superb depth to the colors and contrasts. This is a beautifully shot film and the DVD captures that aspect very well. The English subtitles have the occasional quirk to them but are also very strong is the included 5.1 audio track. The ample bonus features, as is the standard in Korea, are sadly not given any sort of English treatment whatsoever.