[Update 03/09/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]I might not be the best person to review this movie since I've never read the manga or seen the anime, but then again that didn't stop me from falling madly in love with DEATH NOTE. I heard about KAIJI because the two stars of DEATH NOTE (Tatsuya Fujiwara and Ken'ichi Matsuyama) reunite in this film and that sounded exciting! And it was, but it was also disappointing because Tatsuya is the main star (and he's great), but Ken'ichi only has a very minor part with probably less then two minutes of actual screen time!
The story is about this dude who has a crappy job with no fucking future. One day he's hard pressed by these evil dudes into going on this cruise ship where he's suppose to gamble away his debt to them (whether or not his debt was actually real I never figured out). So he gambles and ends up as a slave for these people and spends 15 years(?) working on some underground construction. Finally one day he get the chance to gamble his way out if slavery and all kinds of wild shit happens.
I liked the story a lot and enjoyed the movie, but it felt like they were just cramming too much into the movie and skipping right over some important shit. My recommendation is to read the manga first then watch the movie. Personally I liked the story enough that I'm going to try and read them myself before I watch Part 2.
Part 2 - Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011)
Part 3 - Kaiji: Final Game (2020)
