Kaiji (2009 film)

The film became Japan's sixteenth highest-grossing film of 2009, earning ¥2.25 billion ($25 million) at the Japanese box office that year.[11][12] Overseas, the film grossed $460,073,[13] bringing the film's worldwide total to $25,460,073.

Carlo Santos of Anime News Network ranked Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler as a C. Santos wrote that the greatest strengths of the film are the psychological gamesmanship and the theory of gambling games, preserving the spirit of the original work. He criticized the characters' one-dimensional characterization, the "artificial" closed-room scenarios and the "contrived" staging of "scrappy working-class hero versus evil old rich guy", stating that Kaiji could be labeled as a "fantasy". Santos also mentioned the changes from the original work and the "awkward plot manuevers" to make the events fit in the film's two-hour time frame.[14] Chris MaGee of Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow described the film as a "very uncomfortable mix" between the social commentary of the 2009 film Kani Kōsen, Tatsuya Fujiwara's first starring role in the 2000 film Battle Royale, and televised poker shows. He criticized the "over-the-top" acting of Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama and Teruyuki Kagawa, stating that "William Shatner would end up telling Kagawa that it might be a good idea to dial things down a little bit. It seems that in the world of Kaiji more always equals better." He concluded "I could only see director Toya Sato and the producers of Kaiji the film being entertained by its game show strategies and hyper-dramatics. For those of us unfortunate enough to be sitting in the audience the whole experience is just painful. Not to give away any spoilers, but the fact that the film's ending leaves things wide open for a sequel or sequels makes me shudder."[15]