"We'll win, then start anew!"
"You have no one to blame but yourselves for being losers. What you must do now is to win! Just win! Don't hope to win. You have to win! Living without winning is not an option!"
— Yukio Tonegawa
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler is a film adaptation based on the manga of the same name, which was written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It was released on the 9th of October, 2009, and it is the first instalment in the Kaiji trilogy.
Kaiji Itō (Tatsuya Fujiwara) is a loser in life. All he does every day is waste his money on lottery tickets, work a meagre job and vandalise cars belonging to the rich. Unfortunately, a loan shark, Rinko Endō (Yūki Amami), informs Kaiji of an unpaid debt owed to a previous co-worker. Two choices are laid out in front of this hapless man: he can pay the debt in 11 years, or all in one night if he embarks a special ship named Espoir Translation . Kaiji chooses the second option, and is thrust into a series of gambles that may make or break him in every way possible. Nonetheless, Kaiji will find the courage he thought he never had to achieve possible victories, big or small.
This film is followed by Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler.
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler contains examples of:
- Abled in the Adaptation: Kaiji doesn't lose four of his fingers or his left ear, since the film cut out the self-rigged tissue box game with Hyōdō.
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: The first arc was a complete Downer Ending, with Kaiji losing all the hard-earned money he earned from Tonegawa's defeat to Hyōdō in a tissue box game and being permanently mutilated. This part is omitted in the film, so not only does he keep the money, he also pays off all debts to Endo and Ishida's daughter. Granted doing so still leaves him with a paltry sum, but at least it's better than nothing.
- Book Ends: Not only are the first and last games on the Espoir a card game, but they also involve Kaiji using blood to mark a card and trick his opponent into believing that their opponent will move in a way that will suit himself.
- Cane Fu: Hyōdō puts his walking stick to good use at the end, by whacking Tomegawa thrice over his 'E-Card' loss.
- Chekhov's Gun: The microchip injected into Kaiji's right shoulder for labor, designed to track the person 24/7. It's also a handy heart monitor that Tonegawa has on his watch, used to foresee what card Kaiji will play in the 'E-Card' game.
- Chekhov's Skill: Subverted. Kaiji loses his second star in 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors' because Funai secretly swapped a paper with a scissors, concealing it with his hands. This comes back in 'E-Card', where Tonegawa thinks that Kaiji may have swapped a face-down Slave card with a Citizen card. But he was wrong, because Kaiji actually faked this tactic to win.
- Compressed Adaptation: Combines the Cruise Ship, part of the Underground City, Brave Man Road and E-Card arcs into one long narrative.
- Creator Cameo: Nobuyuki Fukumoto himself appears as a black suit.
- Deadly Game: It's the modus operandi of the Espoir. If you lose 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors', you will be sent to daily underground labor to pay off your debt in monthly instalments, which is highly unlikely given the unfavourable conditions or the hefty prices for medicine or snacks. If you lose the Electric Current Steel Frame Crossing, you die by either losing your balance or electrocution. If you lose the 'E-Card' game, you will be sent back to labour for a longer period of time, possibly permanently.
- Determined Defeatist: When the rules for the 'E-Card' game are revealed, this trope is used to justify why the Slave card can beat the Emperor card.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Sahara and Kaiji pass the Electric Current Steel Frame Crossing, Sahara heads to the door. A flash of lightning causes Kaiji to see Hyōdō grinning down on them, meaning that he is anticipating them opening the door. Kaiji then yells at Sahara not to do this... but Sahara does so anyway and both are blasted away by the difference in air pressure between inside and outside the building. Kaiji grabs onto a ledge, but Sahara loses his balance.
- Gender Flip: Endo and Ishida's son are women in this adaptation.
- Gratuitous English: Tonegawa shouts out "FUCK YOU!" when the contestants for 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors' demand more answers about the game.
- Hope Spot: There is one that the villains don't even cause to the heroes, in 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors'. After Kaiji beats Funai at his own game, he harmlessly expends all his cards with a new friend, Ishida. The two rejoice... only for Ishida to realize that he forgot about one more card in his pocket, meaning he failed the game. The timer even runs out at that moment, to emphasize this loss. Kaiji decides to join him in his fate, despite using up all of his cards, and both are sent to underground labor.
- I Know You Know I Know: Two examples occur in this film.
- In 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors', Kaiji and Funai noticed each other's last cards: rock and a bloodstained scissors respectively. Kaiji then created a plan when Funai announced the reshuffling of everybody's cards, by counting on Funai's strategy of deliberately giving his rival and himself the cards seen earlier to easily win immunity. He then joined up with Ishida, who still had all 12 cards, and proceeded to wipe off the blood on the Scissors card's corner and reapply it on the corner of one of Ishida's Paper cards that he would take for himself. Giving the newly possessed Paper card to Funai, that man would bend the corner of his Rock card to reclaim it while giving back the blood-stained card he thought was Scissors to Kaiji. In the end, Kaiji chose to bet his final star and Ishida's two remaining stars for his match against Funai and proceeded to beat Funai's Rock, keeping Ishida and him in the game... seemingly.
- The final 'E-Card' round turns out to be this. Kaiji figures out that Tonegawa's watch worn in the first two rounds was different than the one before the game started, which Tonegawa constantly looked at during the duel. From this, he discovers that Tonegawa was viewing his opponent's heart rate on the watch via Kaiji's Slave Brand microchip, so that he can know what cards his opponents will use. So, Kaiji headbutts a nearby mirror over and over to draw blood before the third round begins, hoping to employ the marking tactic from the 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors' round on two of his face-down cards: a Citizen on the left and a Slave on the right. Due to Kaiji's injury, Tonegawa's heart monitor levels rapidly fluctuate, rendering it useless. Kaiji then grabs another face-down Citizen card with his hand covering it, moves the card so that it's over the right card and then pulls it back. He ends up riding on the fact that Tonegawa would hesitate and notice which cards were stained with blood, what strategy Kaiji was using, and the possibility that Kaiji may have swapped the face-down right card, essentially baiting him into using his Emperor card. Thus, Kaiji destroys that card with his Slave card and wins the game!
- Logo Joke: The Nippon Television Network Corporation has ghostly noises chanting "ZAWA" repeatedly, when the sun comes up and until its light completely fades from the logo. The chanting decreases in intensity in the middle of the logo, and then come back in full force when it ends.
- Precision F-Strike: See Gratuitous English for this trope. It's so effective, the crowd goes silent when he says it.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Before the third 'E-Card' round, Kaiji smashes his face four times on a mirror, berating himself over being a loser. This is actually part of his plan, as he can mark specific cards with his blood and screw over Tonegawa's readings of Kaiji's heart rate on his watch.
- Say My Name: Played for Laughs. Kaiji yells out Endo's name after she takes back most of Kaiji's victory money, due to his debt taking into account extra compound interest rates, as well as the repairs and taxes from the car he vandalised at the beginning.
- Scream Discretion Shot: When people lose 'Restricted Rock Paper Scissors', they are taken to a back room by black suits, where only screaming is heard. When Kaiji goes in there later, we see why: they are being branded with the Teiai Corporation's emblem. This trope, along with Smash to Black, is also used for Kaiji himself, as the brand gets closer to his arm.
- Sequel Hook: The film ends with Ishida's daughter, Yumi, receiving the rest of Kaiji's money, as well as the late Ishida's 10 million yen voucher. This will undoubtedly have her seeking answers about this payment, in addition to the death of her father. As a bonus, she is first seen working at a pachinko place, alluding to the next game Kaiji faces: "The Swamp".
- Slave Brand: Kaiji, and other losers on the Espoir, are branded with the Teiai Corporation's emblem to mark the beginning of their slavery times.
- Slipping a Mickey: At the end of the movie, Endo spikes Kaiji's beer with a sleeping agent, so that she can secretly leave with most of Kaiji's money.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When Kaiji is reeling from Ishida's suicide on the 'Brave Men Road', he slowly wills himself to keep walking across to the other building. This moment then segues into a roaring reprise of "OPENING TITLE"
(Which can be heard at 5:28), as Kaiji regains the will to live and win for a better future. - Triumphant Reprise: Kaiji's main theme is played in a higher, hopeful key (0:59) at the exact moment it's revealed that Kaiji actually won against Tonegawa in 'E-Card'. It's even punctuated with the Teiai underground workers loudly cheering at this achievement, since they watched the whole thing on a TV.
- Villainous Breakdown: Let's just say that Tonegawa doesn't take his E-Card loss at the hands of Kaiji well.
- Win Your Freedom: The Electric Current Steel Frame Crossing, which is an electrified steel beam across two twenty-two storey buildings, is this for any Teiai underground labour workers.
- Work Off the Debt: This is the fate of the Teiai underground labour workers.
♫ Baby! Never mind, never say die! ♫
