News
2nd Live-Action Kakegurui Film Screens at Fantasia Int'l Film Festival
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Montreal's 25th Fantasia International Film Festival announced on Wednesday that it will screen Kakegurui 2: Ultimate Russian Roulette (Kakegurui: Zettai Zetsumei Russian Roulette), the live-action film sequel based on Homura Kawamoto and Tōru Naomura's Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler manga. The virtual film festival will stream from August 5-25 and will also screen Shunji Iwai's live-action online film 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8.
Kakegurui 2: Ultimate Russian Roulette will have its North American debut at the virtual film festival. The staff of the festival describes the film:
Welcome back to Hyakkaoh Academy, where the students engage in compulsive gambling to climb the social ladder, but this time around the return of a demented alumni will wreak a new kind of havoc on the school. KAKEGURUI 2: ULTIMATE RUSSIAN ROULETTE, written and directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa (PROJECT DREAMS), raises the stakes beyond money and clout to a game of life and death. This highly creative, colorful, and thrilling manga adaptation makes a reinvented poker game as engaging as a championship match.
The film was slated to open in Japan on April 29, but was delayed due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the state of emergency declared in four prefectures on April 25. The film was then slated for May 12 before it was delayed yet again due to COVID-19 and the extended state of emergency in Japan.
The film will include a returning cast, but will focus on a new antagonist, the shrewd gambler Makuro Shikigami, played by Johnny's West member Ryūsei Fujii. Tsutomu Hanabusa is returning to direct the film, and is also writing the screenplay with Minato Takano.
The manga inspired a 10-episode live-action show that premiered in Japan in January 2018. Netflix is streaming the series outside of Japan. A second season premiered in March 2019. The first live-action film then opened in May 2019. Katsura Saiki's Kakegurui Twins manga spinoff is also inspired a live-action series that debuted on Amazon Prime on March 26.
The main manga inspired a television anime series that ran from July to September 2017 in Japan. The series premiered outside of Japan on Netflix in February 2018. The anime's second season premiered in January 2019, and Netflix began streaming the series in June 2019.
The 24th Fantasia International Film Festival hosted the Canadian premiere of the first Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler live-action film. The event also screened the live-action film adaptation of Fujita's Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku manga and the live-action film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Barbara manga in 2020.
The festival's staff have stated that its 25th iteration will feature an "enhanced focus on Japanese cinema ... In celebration of the key role that Japan's culture has played across Fantasia's history."
Source: Press release
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history