Kaiji: Jinsei gyakuten gêmu

It's easy to criticise this film for being very over the top and downright outlandish, and that's because it is. It definitely has some overacting and very silly moments or dialogue, does it really hurt this film? No. The entire premise is over the top right off the bat, the film is about a guy playing a casino game (on a boat for some reason, maybe to bypass illegal gambling laws... who knows?) which is basically rock paper scissors to wipe out his debt and if he loses is doomed to pay it off through slave labour. I can't turn around and say "Aw man, they've managed to make this silly!" on top of that it's an adaptation from a manga, a good adaptation as you would expect from a cast reunited from the live action Death Note (that's right they actually had a good one before Netflix).

This is a very entertaining film and with almost all films you know the hero is going to come out on top, this film is very good at baiting you into thinking he's found a way to basically cheat the system. I like the original idea that there is debt collectors who would victimize people to extort more from them including a sort of underground (ironically) mining operation that pays them a pittance then entices them to give it back in exchange for luxury items.