Testing out a man’s luck in life, Big Bet dives into the mind of a gambler.
Despite having the grit and resilience to fight whatever is thrown in life, a man’s origin finds its way to drag him down the same path he ought to avoid.
Opening Week Rating:
Marcie Line watched Big Bet on Disney+
Episode Recaps: 01-03 | 04 & 05 | 06 | 07 | Final Episode + Big Bet Season 1 Review |
Big Bet Opening Week Story
“You need to read if you want to be worth anything.”
Set in a trap, Cha Moo-sik gets arrested by the NBI in the Philippines for the murder of Min Seok-jun. Dodging the questions, he revisits his childhood.
Being left in the daycare by his mom, young Moo-sik and his friend Jong-hyun catch bugs to earn enough money to buy fried chicken. Despite taking a long time, Moo-sik’s mom comes back to take him from daycare.
Having difficulty in school, Moo-sik becomes motivated by his father, who frequents jail. Moving to Daejeon, he and his mother find a stable life where he sold newspapers while not giving the change to his buyers.
Grown-up, Moo-sik now owns an English academy at Daejeon and becomes interested in opening up a casino bar.
“There are a lot of insane things out there in the world.”
Earning a lot from the casino bar, the National Tax Service or the NTS gets a whiff of it, and Moo-sik escapes to the Philippines while Chi-young gets arrested. There, he gets reunited with his friend from high school Sung-il and Dong-eok.
While his wife is clueless about the visits of the NTS, Moo-sik suggests they move to the Philippines. He lost his savings after gambling and taking a lot of loans.
Chi-young describes Moo-sik to the NTS as a nice guy who is known nationwide despite not being a gangster. He clarifies that Moo-sik is a man who gives gifts handsomely.
With no prosecution pending, Jong-hyun urges Moo-sik to come back to Korea while probing if it was true that he gambled all his money away. Sang-gu then comes to Moo-sik to threaten him not to run away from his loans.
“You know, when I started making money, it wasn’t really planned out. Well, now I’ve lost it all.”
Mr. Min offers Moo-sik to become a business partner when Moo-sik admits he has empty pockets.
Arriving back in Korea, Moo-sik learns that his father died, and meets an older brother he never knew of at his father’s funeral. Going back to his memory of his father, he recalls Mr. So, a teacher who believed in him while he was struggling with his drug user father.
Taking Jong-hyun’s advice, Moo-sik becomes successful in pleading for his tax to be lowered. Settling his tax issues, he becomes Mr. Min’s collector of debt after cutting ties with Dong-eok, who talks behind his back according to Sang-gu.
Back in his younger years, Moo-sik scores high on his SAT but enters a nearby school because of his new homeroom teacher. Believing he was too good for that school, he decides to focus on work but gets involved in a demonstration after saving Su-jin. After being arrested, he then unintentionally becomes a fighter for democracy.
Big Bet Opening Week Musings
Revisiting Moo-sik’s past presents him as a man who had so much potential redirected to the wrong streams. Such was evident when he was young at daycare and even as a teen.
However, all those efforts and potential are trashed by the adults around him such as his father and their new homeroom teacher. He worked his way through to break out of that depressing system, but now as an adult, he becomes surrounded by the very same things he abhors his father for– gambling and drugs.
Given the time jumps in the first episodes, it can be a little confusing but is quite necessary. Since the past tells a lot about how an event is connected with what Moo-sik became, the time jumps are understandable.
Due to the overseas setting, the atmosphere built on the scenes feels a bit different than most series. Putting into detail how the industry of gambling is established, as well as the other illegal activities that are interconnected to it, there’s already a lot to learn and absorb early on about both countries’ casino industries.
Contrary to his abilities and seemingly good nature, Moo-sik’s continuation of his story is something to look forward to. His past where he had so much potential in various activities could tell a lot as to how he became a suspect in the near present.
Watch new episodes of Big Bet on Disney+.
Photos: Disney+
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