'Tazza' finale: Byun Yeo-han bets everything on his most demanding role yet [Interview]

Playing Jang Tae-young in "Tazza: Song of Beelzebub"

The finale of a franchise spanning 20 years

'A character who never dwells on the past — just like Hold'em'

'Marriage brought me peace — and the confidence to keep going'

This year, Byun Yeo-han has been everywhere — moving between streaming and the big screen with a frequency few actors can match. From the Netflix film "Pavane" to "Gyeongju Travelogue," directed by Kim Mi-jo and released last month, to "Dad's Home Cooking," a short-form drama series by director Lee Joon-ik, he has taken on roles of every size and left a distinct impression in each one, steadily cementing his name in the public consciousness.

Now he is heading to cinemas over the chuseok holiday as Jang Tae-young, the protagonist of "Tazza: Song of Beelzebub," the fourth and final installment of the "Tazza" franchise.

The franchise launched in 2006 with the first film starring Cho Seung-woo, Kim Hye-soo and Baek Yoon-sik, and has run for 20 years. Byun was chosen to carry its final chapter — a prospect that stirred not just pressure but outright fear. Yet when the script landed in his hands, turning it down never crossed his mind. Drawn in by an irresistible pull, he poured himself into shaping Jang Tae-young: rough and fierce, but driven by a tenacity that makes the character impossible to look away from.

Meeting Byun at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul, ahead of the film's release, he recalled the moment the script first reached him. "The moment I picked it up, I was pulled in as if by some irresistible charm," he said. "I thought that if I threw away this role just because I was scared, I'd be a coward — so I got on board."

Original cartoonist Heo Young-man has described "Tazza: Song of Beelzebub" as the most dramatic entry in the series. The film follows two close friends whose bond unravels into jealousy and betrayal, culminating in a high-stakes showdown across the gambling table.

Byun's character, Jang Tae-young, plunges into the online casino business alongside his best friend Park Tae-young (played by Noh Jae-won) — a man who shares his name but not his luck. When Park, envious of Jang's seemingly charmed fortune, betrays him and sends him crashing to rock bottom, Jang miraculously survives. He seeks out a legendary card sharp, masters poker, and ultimately returns to face the friend who once left him for dead.

The film builds to a climax in a winner-take-all showdown between two friends who share a name but walk opposite fates. It balances the franchise's most emotionally charged drama with a propulsive pace and seamless chemistry among the cast — a combination that makes it a quintessential chuseok blockbuster.

"This film has a completely independent world of its own, entirely separate from the three films that came before it," Byun said. "It holds the emotions between two friends — the envy, the jealousy, the ambition, and the obsession to rise again after falling apart. It carries the 'Tazza' title, but in some ways I think of it as a film about friendship."

In the film, after barely surviving a near-death ordeal far from home, Jang Tae-young quietly begins preparing his revenge against the friend who stabbed him in the back without a second thought. Whether riding a streak of extraordinary luck or clawing his way back from the bottom, Jang shares one constant trait: he never looks back. Even amid a storm of emotion, audiences find themselves rooting for him — because of his unshakeable self-respect. It is that self-respect, the film suggests, that draws luck toward him rather than the other way around.

Byun said that learning Hold'em — a variant of poker in which players combine personal and community cards to form the best possible hand — for the role led him to realize how closely the game mirrored Jang Tae-young's life. In gambling, dwelling on the cards already played makes it impossible to move forward.

"Tae-young had a hard upbringing, but there's no bitterness in him — I think that's because he doesn't dwell on the past," Byun said. "Accepting the past, forgiving your former self, and holding onto your self-respect as you move forward — that's what it means to be lucky. After spending months learning Hold'em before filming, I realized the game itself closely resembles Tae-young's life. Staying steady when a good hand comes your way — I think that comes down to the attitude with which you receive luck."

Byun pours himself into every role. "If I'm not giving everything, I wonder why I'm even acting," he said. "Whether I do it well or not, I simply don't know how to hold anything back."

Jang Tae-young was no exception. The character goes through so many twists and turns that Byun had to capture the transformation not only emotionally but physically — and in a short span of time. For him, acting is not so different from being a professional athlete.

"I was in the middle of building up my body at an intense pace, and it got to be too much — I ended up in the emergency room. I'd pushed past what my body could handle and went into hypoglycemic shock," he said. "After I got back from the hospital, I told actor Noh Jae-won, 'Let's just die doing this.' He wrote back, 'Yes, let's die.' It felt like the kind of extreme, simple answer that only someone with real passion could give." He laughed.

The conversation, charged throughout with passion and sincerity about his craft, turned to Byun's philosophy of acting. Now past 40, he said he feels he finally understands why he acts — and the word he reached for was "pain." In his view, performance without suffering cannot reach an audience. So he willingly avoids the comfortable path.

"In 'Waiting for Godot,' Park Geon-hyeong and Shin Gu came on stage and said almost nothing, and I nearly cried," he said. "I'm nowhere near that level, so I think I still have a long way to go — I have to make up for it with my body. That's why pain is essential in my acting. I'm not acting to show people a comfortable, well-fed life. I think an actor has to suffer to develop their own scent — and that's what gets through to audiences."

Even as words like "pain" and "pursuit" filled the conversation, there was a new steadiness in Byun's expression — something different from before. Having someone to walk through life with, rather than going it alone, seemed to have shifted something fundamental in how he carries himself. The more grounded his life has become, the sharper and more resolute his commitment to his work as an actor.

"Getting married brought me peace of mind," he said. "I've changed, and I think I need to keep changing. But when it comes to the work I have to do, I'm still just as confident — more so, even. Right now, I need to go out and meet audiences at the post-screening events. Every time I finish a film, the moment I've always been waiting for is finally here."

balme@heraldcorp.com