Animal World

Im not gonna lie, when I first saw the trailer I was excited to see the movie, then I had the chance and it was not even close to what I expected. But at the end it was a really good movie. No regrets

First of all, "gambling for life" is not anything new. We've seen the idea development in many movies and books already. There were all kinds of such games: walking day and knight, card games, labyrinths, TV shows, computer games... Even the extra-dimensional space sliced into cubic rooms (you know what I am hinting at!) So you can hardly be surprised or entertained by yet another kind of a game where stakes are so high.

And you can hardly say that you couldn't guess what would be the plot in general. Really, you can roughly outline it since the very beginning.

Yet, this movie is really good! And what makes it good is how story writers turned a very simple kind of game into a very deep and complex human interaction. How the gaming process melts into background to highlight all the complex things that happen between characters downstage. How the plot twists are really powered by human passions, not just gaming activities. And this is really cool! This is where really good movie making begins!

I won't say this is the best film of the year, but it is definitely good, and entertaining, and also quite beautiful (even with all the surrealistic ugly monsters that appear on-screen). Unexpectedly "western" kind of movie for China, too. See it! It's fun!

Truly one of the most insane things I've ever seen. If you love rock paper scissors, Michael Douglas phoning it in, and random CGI monster violence that serves nearly no purpose to the plot, this is the movie for you! In all seriousness, this does feel like a movie attempting to cater to perhaps the widest swath of film watcher demos I've ever seen: action junkies, weirdo gore heads, car chase aficionados, romcom fans, mathy puzzle junkies, anime kids, CGI freaks; certainly there's some Venn diagram crossover but to stuff it all in? INSANE. That the movie is pretty damn enjoyable on the whole feels like a minor miracle, but here we are. I liked it! When the pretty clever ending setup a direct sequel? I was excited! Look, life is kinda crazy. Sometimes you don't want a deep, contemplative work of art. Sometimes you just wanna watch a little 'Surviving the Game' style roshambo and enjoy the ride.

It reminded me a bit Sucker Punch, the protagonist dissociation create a parallel universe. Very worth to watch it.

It was quite different than the original Kaiji. I did not know what to expect when I saw the weird clown fights, but in the end they were a nice dark addition to the story, can't say the same about the other elements. The worst thing for me was that I could not see Kai Si's ultimate despair mode, and that is a bit lacking because that was the moment when Kaiji came up with all of his greatest ideas. And of course, I missed the "zawa zawa" onomatopoeia, as a mark of Nobuyuki Fukumoto.