Kaiji The Ultimate Gambler Review

Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler

Language: Japanese

Genre: Drama

Year: 2009

Synopsis:

Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a man nearing his 30’s, lives a pathetic life. With no money and no descent job, he relies on gambling. One day, he meets debt collector Endo (Yuki Amami) who tells him to go to a gambling cruise. If he gets lucky, he will be able to clear his debt. However, things don’t turn out well and his life changes forever.

Cheerfulnuts’ Review:

Kaiji is not a comedy but I couldn’t help myself from laughing because of the exaggerated emotions and facial expressions of the characters. That said, the movie has some heart-stopping scenes and poignant moments. The movie is full of colourful characters. As expected in manga’s, the characters aren’t realistic, but each of them has distinct characteristics that make them very interesting. The acting is superb. I think Tatsuya Fujiwara did a fantastic job on portraying Kaiji. This is not like other dramas that could make you cry (a total turn-off to most male viewers), but you could definitely feel the emotions intensely. I think Fujiwara deserves a standing ovation for his performance.

Despite its gambling theme, I like the movie’s message, which is changing your life and starting anew. In the first part of the movie, it showed the dull and uneventful life of the almost 30-year-old Kaiji. In Japan where most people seem to be hard-working, it would be expected that someone at Kaiji’s age would be living a good life. Because of his lack of achievements, Kaiji was labelled as a “loser”, something he isn’t happy about but still didn’t try to change.

It was after he met Endo that his life changed forever.

I like how the movie had given a lot of emphasis on characterization. Kaiji was a good-hearted man as evidenced by how he looked after Koji Ishida (Ken Mitsuishi). So despite his being a “trash” (as what he was described in the movie), I appreciate his character and it’s almost impossible not to sympathize with him. As the movie progressed, Kaiji learned about faith and being strong. His determination had won over the seemingly cold Endo.

My first impression of Kaiji is that it’s similar to Liar Game. It is also about a game that involves “life and death” of the players. However, unlike Liar Game, the games in Kaiji are much simpler and easier to understand.

I highly recommend this movie!

Cheerfulnuts’ Verdict:

10 out of 10 stars.