Kaiji 2 The Ultimate Gambler

Ratings: 7.0/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Suspense Drama

After months and months of waiting, I've finally managed to watch my highly anticipated Kaiji 2. Kaiji 1 really grew on me. It's not super intellectual, but I love seeing how an underdog average guy outsmarts and defeats a scheming evil empire.

Kaiji 2 still didn't portray the lead star, "Kira from Death Note", as a cool and zai character but still as the whimpy, impulsive, gambling addict. What makes him different from everyone else who was in debt is undying determination to save himself and others. 

After surviving the death-defying game from Kaiji 1, Kaiji finds himself back in debt and ends up in the "underground". The "underground" is a prison where an evil empire puts its debtors to work as slaves. How Kaiji ended up in the "underground" again is not explained, and I find it too coincidentally ridiculous that he would go back to his old habits of gambling even though he knows how inhumane the "prisoners" are treated in the hell hole. 

The storyline is fine, as long as you don't examine it too much. Cos frankly, I don't think it makes much sense, about Kaiji ending up in the "underground" again and how he's so determined to save his "friends" from that place. It was implied many times throughout the movie that the reason why he was able to win the game from part 1 was cos of his determination to live. Yet, ironically, he chooses addiction over life. Guess he didn't really learn from his mistakes after all... only to set out on yet another seemingly impossible mission. 

He's given a 14 day free pass to roam the streets, after outsmarting the "underground" guards who had been conning the inmates and winning cash to buy him temporary freedom. On the surface, he must find a way to multiple whatever cash he has into millions, 20 million to be exact, so that he can clear himself and his so-called "friends" from debt. 

An opportunity is given, when he gets ear about the "swamp", a pachinko machine which gives out beastly returns. One problem, the machine is in a casino owned by the evil empire... and it's rigged to be unbeatable. 

I've never played pachinko, and though I know it's a popular game in Japan, I have no "feelings" for it. So when 1/4 of the movie is about Kaiji with his group of confederates sitting in front of a giant pachinko machine and slotting cards in exchange for small brass balls which rolls from the top and having to end up at a final hole in order to win, it didn't hymn well with me. 

Though I thought the ultimate game wasn't as interesting as the previous "E-card" game from Kaiji 1, I really loved the take-home message. Even though the movie's more than 2 hours long, it didn't feel that draggy. It was fairly fast paced throughout but the main difference between this sequel and it's predecessor, is that for Kaiji 1, I was cheering him on, but for Kaiji 2, I was watching it more for the challenges/games because we all know how it's ultimately going to end...