Disney+ K-drama Big Bet: Choi Min-sik crime saga, the TV debut of The Outlaws director Kang Yoon-sung, is a gamble that has yet to pay out
- Oldboy star Choi Min-sik returns to the small screen after 25 years in Disney+ K-drama Big Bet as an entrepreneur who runs a very successful gambling empire
- An era-spanning saga, its narrative jumps around a lot, and there are some odd casting choices, but Choi is predictably strong in his leading role
A few months after Narco-Saints, a group of wily middle-aged Korean men are once again abandoning their families and gallivanting to third world countries in search of infamy and fortune in the year-end Disney+ Korean drama Big Bet.
Moo-sik began life as a street urchin deep in the Korean countryside, but as the show opens in 2015 he is a bigwig casino operator in the Philippines, who is chauffeured around in SUVs and accompanied by a retinue of burly, gun-toting goons.
On his way to a meet-up, Moo-sik talks to his right-hand man, Jungpal (Lee Dong-hwi), in the car about the fact that there are no everlasting flowers – they bloom and quickly wither. These prove prophetic words, as Moo-sik’s meeting turns out to be a sting operation staged by the Philippines’ NBI (National Bureau of Investigation).
Moo-sik is up on a murder rap and, during a press conference, he remains silent in front of a battery of reporters who pepper him with questions about a number of killings.