Korea's Favorite Crime Action Franchise Returns in "THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT" in SM Cinemas on August 14, 2024

The latest installment of Korea’s action franchise "The Roundup" is coming to the Philippines on August 14, 2024 in SM Cinemas nationwide. "The Roundup: Punishment" starring Don Lee takes its action literally within the Philippines. "The Roundup: Punishment" timely touches on the controversies of online gambling, locally known as POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) as it sees the team of Ma Seok-Do (Don Lee) track down one of Korea’s dangerous criminals Baek Chang-gi (Kim Moo-yul) who now operates an online gambling business in the Philippines.

In a recent interview with Variety, Lee shared “I want the action to evolve (from film to film) and the story to keep up with current times. It’s important that the characters evolve further, becoming wiser with each sequel.”

Tracing the murder of a young Korean professional who escaped from Chang-gi’s gambling operations, beast cop Seok-do’s team takes on the streets in the Philippines riding jeepneys and forming alliances with the local police.  Along with the team is returning character Jang I-su (Park Ji-hwan) disguised as a local who can also communicate in Filipino as he sets up an illegal online casino business to trap the gambling kingpins suspected in the abduction and murder of missing Korean citizens.

The shooting in the Philippines not only magnified the film’s scale but also perfectly captured the reality of borderless, turfless online crime by switching locations back and forth from Korea to the Philippines. While the location of the main villain Baek Chang-gi’s home turf in the film was in the Philippines, the Emperor Casino (the casino Baek runs) and his hideouts were filmed from the various cities of the Philippines such as Angeles and Tarlac City.  

Hailed as Korea’s no. 1 action franchise, The Roundup: Punishment has dominated the Korean box-office for four consecutive weeks with a cumulative total of $75 million since it opened and is now the fastest Korean film to surpass 11 million moviegoers in just 33 days. Currently, it is the second highest grossing Korean film in 2024. 

"The Roundup: Punishment" is rated R16 by the MTRCB. Distributed by Black Cap Pictures, “The Roundup: Punishment” opens August 14 exclusively at SM Cinemas.