“The Roundup” Punishment,” the box office hit film in South Korean this year, is coming to Philippine cinemas. 

The R-16 rated film, starring Ma Dong-seok of “Train to Busan,” will open exclusively at SM Cinemas on Aug. 14. 

In South Korea, the “The Roundup: Punishment” has grossed $79 million since its opening in April. The movie was filmed in the Philippines and South Korea. 

“The Roundup” Punishment” starring Ma Dong-seok was filmed in the Philippines and South Korea (Black Cap Pictures)

The action-comedy movie 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 (Ma Dong-seok) tracking down one of Korea’s dangerous criminals, Baek Chang-gi (Kim Moo-yul), who now operates an online gambling business in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, ex-special forces mercenary Baek Chang-gi monopolizes Korea’s illegal online gambling business by means of abduction, confinement, assault, and even murder. 

In Korea, IT genius CEO Chang Dong-cheol (Lee Dong-hwi) is hatching even bigger plans.

Tracing the murder of a young Korean professional who escaped from Chang-gi’s gambling operations, beast cop Seok-do’s team takes to 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 filming in the Philippines not only magnified the movie’s scale but also 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.

“The Roundup: Punishment” is distributed by Black Cap Pictures. 

“The Roundup” Punishment” (Black Cap Pictures)