Tazza: The Hidden Card is a South Korean gambling film released in 2014. It is the second movie in the series and it is based on a 4 book South Korean graphic novel series. The original film, Tazza: The High Rollers was one of the highest grossing Korean films. After its success the sequel was green lit. It was produced by Sidus FNH, Lotte Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures. The film was distributed in South Korea and Lotte Entertainment and internationally by CJ Entertainment. The comic the film is based on is called Tajja and it was written by Huh Young-man and Kim Se-yeong. Filming started in 2014 in Cheong nyangni-dong, Seoul
The Film Awards
Tazza: The Hidden Card has been nominated for multiple awards. In 2014 the film received three nominations at the 51st Grand Bell Awards; Kang Hyeong-cheol received a nomination for best director. Lee Ha-nui received a nomination for Best New Actress and Kim Jun-seok was nominated for best Music. Tazza: The Hidden Card also received four nominations at the 35th Blue Dragon Film Awards. Lee Ha-nui received another nomination, this time in the best supporting actress category. Nam Na-yeong was nominated in the Best Editing category. Kim Jun-seok received another nomination for best music. Shin Se-kyung won his category for the Most Popular Star. At the 2015 51st Baeksang Arts Awards , Lee Ha-nui received the award for best new actress.
Great Cinematography
The film uses its excellent cinematography to keep viewers new to the top Malaysian online casino card game that was created for the comic from losing the plot. The movie will still require a few views to completely grasp the plot and the card game rules, but with the excellent all round performance of the South Korean cast, each viewing will be a pleasure. With a running time of 147 minutes and with over 30 characters, it can get a bit complex, but as stated, the great cinematography and the great cast make it a very enjoyable experience. The script is well written and the pacing fast and smooth. In fact you sometimes wish that certain characters have more screen time, like the excellent Lee Ha-nui who plays President Woo. The film also features a few cameos by South Korean television, film and Radio personalities, notably Lee Joon-ik, Oh Yeon-soo, Yeo Jin-goo and Cha Tae-hyun
The Possible Tazza Sequels
There are many rumours that there will be more sequel appearing. This is mostly due to the great box office success the first two films had, and the fact that essentially the sequels are already written by Huh Young-man and Kim Se-yeong , with there being two remaining volumes of their Tajj series. The book series is published by Random House Korea. Each book tells a new story with different characters though, with only some overlap. For instance the lead character in Tazza: The Hidden Card, Choi Seung-hyun plays the lead character Ham Dae-gil, who is the nephew of the lead character in the first book and movie, Tazza: The High Rollers. This film left an undeniable impact on Korean cinema and the sequels are more than likely already in the works.