The final movie of the Kaiji trilogy, this is a perfect portrayal of the rich vs poor, and how corrupted officials bribe their way through. The saying - “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer” is illustrated here.
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As they wrap up of the Kaiji trilogy, the film is commendable. Our eponymous character is still the same reckless, smart yet poor fellow in the series. After two movies, nothing has changed for him. In this film, he needs to gamble and outsmart government officials and that proves to be tough as he is poor with no connections.
While the film is exciting and interesting, what comes through are the film’s social themes - poverty, and political corruption.
Kaiji and the world around him embodies poverty. In that world, money equates to power. The rich can do anything and get away with it scot-free. While the rich could have helped the poor, they kick the poor and make the latter’s life even more miserable.
Political corruption is a major theme in the film, with government officials smiling and pretending to help the society through passing a new bill but in reality, all they want is to help themselves.
There is however one small issue I have with this film (and Japanese films in general); their acting tends to go overboard. There are some unneeded shouting and overreacting that makes it slightly frustrating as the movie goes on.
Overall, the movie is still great. And if you have watched the first two instalments of Kaiji, you should definitely finish this trilogy with a bang by watching the final film in the series!
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