Plot Summary:Description: Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara) erased all of his debts by successfully navigating through death-defying games one after the other. A year later though, he's back in the same debt ridden situation. Kaiji then gets a chance to clear himself of his 200 mllion Yen debt, but he has only 2 weeks. Kaji then decides to take on the mother of all pachinko machines named "The Swamp". The top winning payout is over 1 billion Yen. "The Swamp" is controlled by an illegal casino operation named Teai. Meanwhile, Seiya Ichizo (Yusuke Iseya), controls the machine from a remote location to ensure the machine never pays out the jackpot . Kaiji recruits the help of Yumi Ishida (Yuriko Yoshitaka) whose father was killed by Teai, Kotaro Sakazaki (Katsuhisa Namase) a fired employee of Teai and Yukio Tonegawa (Teruyuki Kagawa) who lost his position at the hands of Teai. They all join Kaiji to take down "The Swamp," but their lives are at stake.
My rating:9/10
Link 1:here
Link 2:here
My Opinion: Oh boy been waiting for this since it was announced during Kaiji season 2. Firstly, you can watch it as a standalone but I obviously recommend watching the first one which was great. The story is slightly reworked with a new game and the ambiguous motivations of a certain character, to make it stand apart from the anime.The actor that played Kaiji I felt stepped up his game for the sequel but the one who stole the show for me was Yusuke Iseya as Ichizo. There was a moment for a split second where he could not help but reveal his glee. I honestly thought he was brilliant. I am also very glad they brought back the foremen. He had my favourite moment in the first film and he is just dam hilarious. There were also a nice few touches that probably most people wont notice, such as the reworking of the Kaiji BGM, Ichizo hair gradually fraying etc. Some of cinematography was inspired as well considering the low budget probably.
I really enjoyed the film and I think it is relevant to the current economic context (though I suppose it has been relevant in Japan since 1989). My one gripe was the ending which I felt was unnecessary in comparison to the first ending where the twist was kind of deserved. Even so, it did not dampen my overall enjoyment.
Credit: **Thanks to NecroRyu for the release info**