Kuroi tobakushi

This movie begins with a dashing young man named "Koji Himuro" (Akira Kobayashi) arriving at a mansion belonging to a rich and influential man in order to play a game of high-stakes bridge at a foreign embassy. His opponents are dishonest card sharks named "Inumaru" (Asao Koike) and "Reiko" (Manami Fuji) who happen to be secretly in league with one another and are passing signs amongst themselves during the course of the game. Yet as skillful as this man and woman are, they are no match for Himuro as he wins 2,400,000 Yen from them. This infuriates Inumaru who proceeds to beat Reiko after the game and then orders her to ingratiate herself with Himuro in order to learn all of his secrets so that they can obtain their revenge against him at a later date. But what neither Himuro nor Inumaru know is that a gambling syndicate is moving their operations to Tokyo and they play by an entirely different set of rules which will immediately threaten everyone's livelihood--in the most lethal manner. Now prior to watching this movie I had no idea that it was just one in a series of between 6 and 8 "Gambler" films produced in Japan. So, whether there are a few nuances here and there in this particular film is unknown to me. Be that as it may, although this movie certainly had enough intrigue and drama, I didn't feel that there was enough suspense to maintain an otherwise excellent beginning. Likewise, I didn't especially care for the rather anti-climactic ending either. Even so, I enjoyed this movie to a certain degree and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.