Directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, “The Roundup: Punishment” (Original title: Beomjoidosi 4) is the fourth installment in “The Roundup” movie series. It is a sequel to “The Roundup: No Way Out.” After its Berlinale premiere, it was released theatrically and became one of the highest-grossing Korean films of the year. It stars Ma Dong-seok, who came into the limelight after his performance in “Train to Busan.” Now, he has become one of the most successful South Korean actors and one of the most recognizable action stars globally. In the 2024 film, he plays the central character of a Seoul police detective who is out to a devious criminal.
Spoilers Ahead
The Roundup: Punishment (Beomjoidosi 4, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Written by San-ho Oh, “The Roundup: Punishment” (Beomjoidosi 4, 2024) follows Detective Ma Seok-do trying to find Baek Chang-ki, the head of an online gambling organization. Besides Ma Dong-seok in the lead role, it also stars Kim Mu-yeol, Park Ji-hwan, Lee Dong-hwi, Lee Beom-su, Derek Choinard, Lee Ji-hoon, Ryu Ji-hoon, Lee Joo-bin, Kim Mu-yeol, Kim Min-jae, and Kim Young-woong.
What is ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ (Beomjoidosi 4, 2024) about?
Set in 2018, “The Roundup: Punishment” begins with an event in the Philippines. Jo Sung-jae (Baek Seung-hwan), a young worker barely in his teens, runs through the city desperately looking for help as few men follow him. Along the way, they cross paths with the local police. Before the police can arrest the goons, Baek Chang-gi (Lee Dong-hwi) arrives there, slashes the cops’ throats, and then stabs Sung-Jae to death. It is revealed that Sung-jae used to work at Chang-gi’s online gambling organization that exploited their workers. Since Sung-jae dared to escape, Chang-gi killed him. Before running this scam, Chang-gi was a Korean Special Forces officer.
Chang Dong-cheol (Lee Dong-hwi), a young IT genius and a coin industry CEO, is the admin of Chang-gi’s online gambling organization. He tells Chang-gi to shut down their competitor casino and gain control of their members. In exchange, he offers to increase Chang-gi’s shares in the company. So, Chang-gi raids the rival company’s servers. He takes his crew to break into their premises and beat them to death. Still, Dong-cheol does not fulfill his promise and tries to trick Chang-gi into doing something more for him. Since Chang-gi feels cheated, he decides to travel to South Korea to confront Chang face to face.
Ma Seok-do’s Investigation
Detective Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok), lieutenant of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Investigation team, investigates an online money laundering case, which leads him to Sung-jae. After his squad busts into Sung-jae’s house, they learn that Sung-jae is dead. Sung-jae’s mother (Bae Hae-sun) cannot believe her son is a criminal. She requests Seok-do to find her son’s murderer. Soon after, she takes her own life. Seok-do’s team starts looking into the details of the gambling app. Han Ji-soo (Lee Joo-bin) from their Cyber Investigation team realizes there was backup data on Sung-jae’s phone. But when she tried to access it, someone deleted it from the cloud.
Ji-soo leads the police team to learn about the Emperor’s Casino, which employed Jo Sung-jae. Their further investigation leads them to Choi Yu-seong (Bae Jae-won), who has been laundering money for Chang-gi. Since they are dealing with gambling-related crimes, Seok-do gets in touch with Jang Yi-soo (Chang Dong-cheol), who runs an arcade. Seok-do enlists Yi-soo to inform them about the inner workings of the industry. Yi-soo reveals that Chang-gi’s organization hopes to monopolize the online gambling industry. That’s why it also took over Yi-soo’s gambling business.
Chang-gi’s Bloody Mayhem
Under fake identities, Yi-soo and a female cop entice one of Chang-gi’s pawns to sell them the proposition of Chang-gi’s business. With their help, the cops arrest this pawn, who reveals crucial details about Chang-gi’s financial operations. As Chang-gi’s plane lands in South Korea, Seok-do and his team arrest Yu-seong. Chang-gi meets Dong-cheol in his villa to get his deserved share. Dong-cheol reveals his plan for QM Holdings, a cryptocurrency scheme with President Kwon (Hyun Bong-sik) as the lead. He delays giving Chang-gi his due and claims his new venture is more beneficial to everyone.
Afterward, Chang-gi oversees a meeting between Ko Jae-hyuk and an exchange representative. Eventually, he kills Ko Jae-hyuk and forces the representative to accept his bribe. Soon after, he infiltrates the police office and brutally murders Yu-seong. So, Dong-cheol gets concerned by Chang-gi’s reckless behavior and tells Kwon to kill him. Later, Seok-do and his right-hand man infiltrate an event for QM Holdings and bump into Chang-gi and his associates. They get into a brutal fight where Chang-gi psychotically injures an innocent woman. Within a few moments, Chang-gi manages to escape. Still, it leads them to realize a possible connection between QM Holdings and Chang-gi’s casino operations.
The Roundup: Punishment (Beomjoidosi 4, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Ma Seok-do arrest Baek Chang-gi?
Chang-gi slips away from Seok-do soon after killing Yu-seong in police custody. On top of that, Seok-do and his squad do not find any concrete result. So, the police chief decides to transfer the case to a different team. Determined to catch Chang-gi, Seok-do requests the police agency commissioner to let him proceed with the investigation. After his approval, Seok-do’s squad plans to use Yi-soo’s inside knowledge for their new mission. They build a faux casino business to tempt Chang-gi’s team to raid them.
With the help of the Philippine National Police, Seok-do’s team raids Chang-gi’s casino’s server and positively establishes a connection between it and QM Holdings. Chang-gi’s team realizes this and decides to shut down the system. Then, they get into a fight with President Kwon’s gang and beat them. Chang-gi works against Kwon and kills Dong-cheol to get hold of his admin key. He takes the server data from Dong-cheol’s villa and leaves a part to Kwon. The police reach the villa only after Chang-gi escapes to the airport. After his team arrests Kwon’s men, Seok-do drives to the airport.
Seok-do gets into an intense fight with Chang-gi and his associate. He beats them both and arrests Chang-gi. Additionally, with Kwon and his men’s arrests, Seok-do fulfills the promise he made to Sung-jae’s mother. He and his squad pay their respects to her.
