The cast of Death Note reunite for another live-action version of a manga and anime, this time with a gruellingly perilous walk across a girder between two skyscrapers (not for vertigo suffers!)…
Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara, Death Note, Battle Royale) is one hell of a loser. A part time convenience store clerk, he dreams of making the big time of a scratchcard, frustrated by the unfiar hand fate has dealt him. That all changes when loan shark Rinko Endo (Yûki Amami, Ponyo) arrives to collect a debt he seemingly signed as guarantor on. She gives him a choice, pay it off for the next 10 years, on spend a night on a gambling boat and no only pay it off but have a chance of making a whole lot more.
On the boat he finds himself surrounded by similarly asset-challenged, no hope (read loser) men, and a lot more a stake than his debt – his very life…!
Based on Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s manga Tokaku Mokshiroku Kaiji, aka Kaiji – Ultimate Survivor, and a 26-part anime series, like Death Note, the film suffers from trying to condense the events of the long-running manga and anime into a relatively short running time, jettisoning much of the stories more complex aspects to concentrate (and dwell far too long on) on what the filmmakers consider to be the more dramatic elements.
In the case of Kaiji that means losing much of the original stories power, the repetitiveness of having Kaiji himself bet all in the hope of escaping his imprisonment, facing one tortuous challenge after another, only to have that hope dashed time and time again. By reducing that to a couple of events, that residual building of hope over a substantial amount of time, and of Kaiji’s character, is lost.
Tatsuya Fujiwara as an entirely unsympathetic character as he was in Death Note, if for different reasons. That is, of course, part of the satire of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s original manga, a comment on well-educated young men who consider they ‘deserve’ a fair break, without ever working towards it. (The irony being that much of the manga’s core audience would be men just like this?) The trouble is Kaiji doesn’t really seem to grow as a person, to stop breaking into tears at each trial that comes along.
The same isn’t true of co-star Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, L: Change the World, Bare Essence Of Life, Kamui: The Lone Ninja). Appearing in little more than an extended cameo Kenichi acts Tatsuya (and everyone else) off the screen, giving a depth to his underdeveloped role only he could. The cast also incudes Teruyuki Kagawa (20th Century Boys, Tokyo Sonata) and Taro Yamamoto (Princess Racoon, Battle Royale), but it’s Yûki Amami, best know for TV work such Wasted Land and Boss, who shines as the debt collector boss who may, or may not, have a heart.
Of all the scenes, it’s the gruelling walk across the girders between the two skyscrapers that catches your attention. Excruciatingly stretched out over 20 minutes, it comes closest to capturing the unpleasant torture of the original manga. It’s pretty effectively played – almost unbearably for us vertigo suffers – but as with much of the film it’s just a little too long.
Again, the script by Mika Omori (Detroit Metal City) has many of the same flaws as Death Note, the main one being that the denouncements are nowhere near as clever as they’d like us to believe – and definitely not worth waiting for.
All that said, this is still more enjoyable the Death Note: The Last Name…
DVD details
Distributor: 4Digital Asia (UK)
Fairly minimal release from 4Digital features a trailer and making of documentary as bonus features.
