[INTERVIEW] Choi Min-sik, Lee Dong-hwi on creating Korean-style noir with 'Big Bet'

Actor Choi Min-sik and Lee Dong-hwi co-star in the Disney+ Korean original series "Big Bet." Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

By Lee Gyu-lee

The Disney+ Korean original series, "Big Bet," explores the dark, macho world of casinos through the eyes of its lead character, Cha Mu-sik, a Korean casino mogul in the Philippines.

Actor Choi Min-sik, who played the role of Cha, shared that he wanted to emphasize the Korean sentiment in this crime noir series.

Actor Choi Min-sik / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

"The story moves forward centering on Cha's narrative; his relationship with his mother, and with his wife … I wanted to capture the conflicts that are specific to Korean people," Choi told The Korea Times during an interview, held at a cafe in Jongno District, last Friday.

"I had in mind not to follow some Western gangster movie or noir-genre works. Even with the last scene, I wanted it to have Korean-style reality."

The crime series, which ended its second season last Wednesday, follows the epic saga of Cha, a self-made businessman, who became a legendary figure in the Philippines' casino world. Growing up in a poor family with an abusive father, Cha always had an eye out for ways to make money, starting an after-school academy and illegal gambling business in Korea.

After fleeing to the Philippines to avoid tax evasion charges, Cha puts his business skills to use and forges his way through the cutthroat casino world with his right-hand man, Yang Jung-pal (Lee Dong-hwi). Enjoying his heyday, he does whatever it takes to maintain his influence, even if it means getting his hands dirty and making countless enemies who are waiting to take him down.

A scene from Disney+ series "Big Bet" / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

Choi said he created his character to be an ordinary person, neither good nor bad.

"I didn't set clear boundaries of good and evil. For example, even though a person's bad or evil, I don't see him or her as completely that way. Even a very ordinary person can commit vicious deeds. I don't believe (Cha's) childhood made him become who he is. There are people who live a righteous life despite having an unfortunate childhood," he said.

"But (with this character,) he was chasing after his desire so he came across the wrong people, and as he pursues money and power, he digs himself deeper into a hole. There's no 100 percent bad person or 100 percent good person. So I wanted to portray the variability of a human."

Cha's life comes to a miserable end, when Yang, his trusted right-hand man, betrays him and shoots him in the head, taking all of the wealth he collected over the years.

Actor Lee Dong-hwi / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

Choi noted that he planted a flower in the scene where Cha has his last meal with his men as a metaphor for his inevitable death.

"I wanted to show a man, who has been chasing after greed, dying in vain all of a sudden. Especially, Jung-pal was like Cha's trouble kid, like his little brother," he said. "Like the leaves falling off a flower, I felt it was only right for Cha to leave the stage that way … A hard shutdown, especially by someone he trusted. It was the final result of a person who's gone to the extreme end of his desire."

The second season ends with Yang showing up six months after Cha's death, having started his own casino in Las Vegas with Cha's money. Lee expresses that this ego-centric, ungrateful character was one of the hardest characters he played in his career.

"I thought of him as a person who has bitten off more than he can chew and doesn't know how to control it. You have to pay what you owe but Yang does things that you cannot understand easily. So I contemplated how to make him convincing to viewers," he said, adding he felt his character was an unimaginably evil person.

"Jung-pal is so brazen and shameless to the point he forgets he owed people money. He is impudent and only cares about himself … Because I didn't have any elements I could relate to, creating Jung-pal was a difficult character."

Disney+ series "Big Bet" finished its second season on March 22. Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea

The cast members stayed over two months in the Philippines to shoot the series. The two shared that the co-stars spent their days off together to discuss and study the script.

"On the days that we didn't film, we could have meetings in our hotel room. Because there were a substantial number of characters (in the series), we would study the script to find ways to make them plausible," Choi said. "With Lee, we would discuss improvised lines. We were like 'let's express everything we want.' It was as if we were jamming like jazz musicians… These (co-stars) are the fellows who know what team play is."

Lee added it was the best environment to stay focused on work.

"Because of the COVID-19 quarantine, we couldn't go back and forth home. And with our work schedule, we didn't have much free time to enjoy ourselves. So all we could do was read the scripts. In terms of concentration, this was the most focused I've ever been out of all my previous works," he said. "Working with a such great actor like Choi, I've realized my shortcomings and felt I should keep working hard to be a good actor, once again."