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Kaiji: Jinsei gyakuten gêmu (2009)

| Drama | 10 October 2009 (Japan)
Kaiji: Jinsei gyakuten gêmu Poster
Trailer
1:10 | Trailer
Kaiji, a young gambler who is constantly in debt, enters a deadly gambling competition in order to wipe away his loans.

Director:

Tôya Satô

Writers:

Nobuyuki Fukumoto (manga), Mika Ohmori (screenplay)

Stars:

Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Tarô Yamamoto | See full cast & crew »
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Cast

Credited cast:
Tatsuya Fujiwara ... Kaiji Ito
Ken'ichi Matsuyama ... Makoto Sahara
Tarô Yamamoto ... Joji Funai
Teruyuki Kagawa ... Yukio Tonegawa
Yûki Amami Yûki Amami ... Rinko Endo
Shogen ... Majima
Yuriko Yoshitaka Yuriko Yoshitaka
Takuma Anzai
Kei Satô Kei Satô ... Kazutaka Okada
Ken Mitsuishi Ken Mitsuishi ... Koji Ishida
Sôtarô
Nobuyuki Fukumoto ... Black Suit A
Suzuki Matsuo Suzuki Matsuo ... Taro Otsuki
Bobby Bobby
Ryushin Tei
See full cast »
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Storyline

Kaiji Ito moves to Japan after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two years later and his life no better, a debt collector named Endo arrives to collect money. The debt collector then offers two choices to Kaiji: spend 10 year paying off your loan or board a gambling boat for one night to repay your debt and possibly make a whole lot more. Meanwhile, the unscrupulous Endo is actually conning Kaiji, believing he won't come back from voyage. Kaiji is then up for the night of his life. Written by Jack Jacops

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

character name in title | See All (1) »

Taglines:

Life or death... on the turn of a card!

Genres:

Drama

Certificate:

See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

View content advisory »
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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

10 October 2009 (Japan) See more »

Also Known As:

Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler See more »

Filming Locations:

Kiryu, Gunma, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nippon Television Network (NTV),Horipro,Toho Company See more »
Show more on IMDbPro »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See full technical specs »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

In the manga and anime, Yuji Endo is a male character; in this film Endo is a female character with the name of Rinko Endo. See more »

Connections

Version of Dong wu shi jie (2018) See more »

Soundtracks

It's All Too Much
Performed by Yui
See more »

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User Reviews

 
Brilliant!
25 July 2010 | by george_a_romero – See all my reviews

The colourful cast of Death Note (2006) reunite for this inspired manga/anime adaptation. It is a riveting sizzler of a movie made with nerve-jangling Japanese brutality. Kaiji is a down and out thirty-year-old blue-collar loser who has no luck in life. He is bored of his dead-end job at the hypermarket, irritated that pompous and prosperous people drive around in Mercedes and depressed that he never has enough dough to rise above his comatose lifestyle. One day, a debt collector arrives at his flat to offer him the chance to change his empty existence: go on a cruise with other down and outs, gamble, and repay his debts in the ultimate game of deception. If you win, you start your life afresh, if you lose, well, you will never want to fool around with rock-paper-scissors again because Brave Men Road is the only way to escape 15-years of forced underground slave labour.

Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009) examines the languor of Japanese consumer culture: work, devour, and squander your verve in an everlasting cycle of mass suppression that upholds the lower-class/upper-class divide. This regimented Metropolis style nightmare comes to fruition in the symbolic utopian underground kingdom that blue-collar slave workers must construct for aristocratic city-dwellers. The languid masses march in union, take showers together and buy beer and munchies with their meagre pay to nullify and distract themselves from their authoritarianism. The moral at the heart of Kaiji is simple: if you want to achieve your dreams in this hum/drum existence, you have to wake up, fight, and live recklessly. Would you be willing to walk across an electrified beam between two skyscrapers to pay off your debts while superficial business executives watch you on television screens? If you want to rise above your own worthless comatose lifestyle, why not take up the challenge, you could win lots of money because that is what Brave Men Road is all about, or is it… Verdict: This riveting Battle Royale intoned masterpiece is made with nail-biting suspense, brain-teasing intelligence and mind-blowing wit:-
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