**Animal Wolrd** is a Chinese adaptation of the manga **Kaiji** from _Nobuyuki Fukumoto_.

The film focuses on the first arc of Kaiji "_First Game: [spoiler]Restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors[/spoiler]_".

Since the movie is an adaptation, it allows itself to add and modify certain things, like for example: [spoiler]The fact that the main character has some kind of flashback (and flashforward), seeing himself as a clown killing (I find this really ridiculous and it doesn't match with the atmosphere of Kaiji, I really don't understand why they did this)[/spoiler].

The special effects are really well done but there are too many of them, it breaks the rhythm.

The acting of the main actor is like night and day between the beginning of the movie and the end.
At the beginning I thought he was playing quite badly (he didn't fit the character of Kaiji and it seems like he was playing like a robot, [spoiler]when Andrews (Michael Douglas) told him that he has to pay back his friend's debt, his reaction was "Ok..", I don't know...react! say something!)[/spoiler].
But towards the end he started to perform better.

I really didn't expect to see Michael Douglas in this movie, it was a pure pleasure to see him playing the role of [spoiler]Tonegawa (Anderson).[/spoiler].

Personally, if I had discovered this movie before Kaijin, I would have given it a better grade, but since I watched the Kaijin anime series (which is a masterpiece), I can only say that the movie is good because of the source of its adaptation (it's exactly the same story (with some weird added stuff) as the anime series and the manga).

I advise you to watch the anime **Gyakkyō Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor** which is, in my opinion, one of the best anime in the genre that exists much better than this movie, and yes, it is better than Squid Game and I'm not afraid of saying it (the anime, not this movie).

There are also other series in the genre that I can recommend:

- Alice in Borderland (also a masterpiece) (my little review: https://trakt.tv/comments/340800).
- Akagi (from the same creator as Kaiji) (https://trakt.tv/shows/akagi).
- One Outs (excellent anime) (https://trakt.tv/shows/one-outs).
- Kakegurui (both the anime and the live action are excellent (especially the anime)) (https://trakt.tv/shows/kakegurui and https://trakt.tv/shows/kakegurui-2018).
- Circle (an independent movie from 2015) (https://trakt.tv/movies/circle-2015).

But before all of that, go and watch the series **Gyakkyō Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor** it's really worth it (https://trakt.tv/shows/kaiji).