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Kaiji Gets New Live-Action Film in January 2027
posted on by Anita Tai
TOHO Movies revealed in a early teaser trailer on Wednesday that Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Kaiji manga will receive a new live-action movie adaptation titled Kaiji: Jinsei Revenge Game (Kaiji: Life Revenge Game) on January 29.
Tatsuya Fujiwara reprises his role as the titular character from the 2009 Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler film, 2011 Kaiji 2 - Jinsei Dakkai Game film, and the 2020 Kaiji Final Game film.
Tōya Satō is also returning to direct the new film. Yūgo Kanno is composing the music for the film. Masatoshi Yamaguchi penned the script with assistance from Fukumoto.
Denpa licensed the manga, and it describes the story:
Ne'er-do-well Kaiji Itou's shiftless existence is suddenly rattled by a visit from the yakuza. Burdened by debt and resentment, Kaiji is coerced into gambling for his worthless life. As the stakes grow higher and the rules become increasingly more bizarre, Kaiji must finally take the future into his own hands! Legendary mangaka Nobuyuki Fukumoto finally makes his English-language debut. The inspiration for the infamous anime by the same name and the Netflix live-action film Animal World takes readers into the dark side of Japan's post-bubble economic society by thrusting them into a world of debt, debauchery, and delusion.
Fukumoto serialized the original manga in Kodansha's Young Magazine from 1996 to 1999. The manga has inspired multiple sequels and spinoffs, two television anime series, three previous Japanese live-action films, a Chinese live-action film, and a reality game show. Denpa shipped the third volume in December 2021.
Fukumoto announced in 2024 the Kaiji manga will end in the next arc.
The series is currently on hiatus. The manga first went on hiatus in June 2023 due to Fukumoto conducting research, and was slated to return in September of that year, but instead announced another hiatus in October, and was slated to return in November 2023, but the series has not resumed serialization since then. The manga last appeared in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine's 2023 27th issue in June.
Source: TOHO Movies' YouTube channel, Comic Natalie
