Tweet
Released by: 4Digital Media
Released on: July 26, 2010.
Director: Toya Sato
Cast: Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Teruyuki Kagawa
Year: 2009
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Everyone goes through a string of bad luck from time to time, but in the case of a twenty-something Japanese dude named Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara), his string of bad luck seems to be turning into a lifestyle. Based on the popular manga by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, the film follows the titular Kaiji as he works his way further down the spiral of his gambling problem, losing cash first and soon enough winding up in some pretty hot water where his very life is in danger. He loses his job and those he owes money to are expecting him to pay up, or else.
When Kaiji learns of a gambling boat that has stakes high enough that, if he can win, he'll be able to pay off everyone he owes money to, well, he's just too weak to resist, particularly when one of the thugs (Yuki Amami) he owes money to offers to buy him a one way ticket to get on that boat. The catch? If he fails, he has to work off the money he owes with ten years labor. Unfortunately for Kaiji he's being set up.
Well shot and full of some amusing and interesting characters, Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler is ripe with premise and features some pretty solid (if occasionally way too over the top) performances, particularly from Fujiwara who is entirely believable in the lead. There's lots of style, some really impressive cinematography and some interesting locations and, on the surface level, the film should have been pretty impressive. Then you realize that this thing is well over two hours long and that there's really only about an hour's worth of story to tell. It's then, once that realization is made, that it dawns on you just how padded this film is.
Full of unnecessary and flat out boring scenes of long stretches of drawn out dialogue, Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler starts off reasonably strong and then gets tired. Very tired. Yet, the movie always looks really good. The characters have all got nice outfits on and they look like an interesting bunch of people, making it all the more distressing then that they spend so much of their time sitting around and talking about things rather than actually doing them.
Somewhere in all of this is an interesting story about a man who fights against the odds in hopes of finding his redemption, of grasping that last straw and cleaning up his life but it's hard to find it underneath all of the blah blah blah. Had there been more attention paid to fleshing out Kaiji's back story and better explaining his predicament and less time spent watching people play cards and talking about playing cards, maybe the film would have worked better. That didn't happen though, and as such, Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler winds up a very mixed bag that'll probably only appeal to fans of the manga on which it was based.
Video/Audio/Extras:
NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS BASED ON A TEST DISC THAT OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T REPRESENT
FINISHED, RETAIL PRODUCT.
The DVD-R sent to review presents the film in 2.35.1 non-anamorphic widescreen but the top left corner of the screen has a video bug on it that hopefully isn't going to be there on the proper release.
The Japanese 2.0 Stereo track is fine. It's well balanced, clean, clear and easy to listen to. The English subtitles on the test disc are burned into the image and non-removable. Whether or not that'll be the case on the finished disc is anyone's guess.
There are no extras on the test disc.
The Final Word:
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler has interesting aspects to it but it is ultimately bogged down by some pacing problems and an uneven storyline. In spite of that, those with an interest quirky Japanese dramas or an affinity for the source material might want to give it a look, as the acting is pretty decent. As far as the DVD itself goes, what was sent for review is obviously not even close to finished, making it impossible to really comment on the quality of the release any further.