Animal World (2018)
How would you like to desperately get out of crippling debt by playing a simple game of rock, paper, scissors? Well be careful for what you wish for because you just might get it. Or die trying. Never thought I'd see a movie centered around a childhood game (Squid Game who?? Don't know her).
Animal World is a about a man named Zheng Kaisi who enters a tournament as his hail mary to get out of debt that his scummy friend tricked him into. My man was kind of put in a bind and owed a shit ton of money that he couldn't possibly pay off in his own lifetime until he gets approached by a man. We got an American looking boss (played by Michael Douglas) that recruits him in a tournament over international waters.
Once he gets on this big ass ship, he sees a huge crowd of people of all nationalities. Everyone is equipped with an ear piece that acts as a babel translator. They just tune in to the person's channel and they can automatically understand each other. From what I can understand person 1 hears person 2 in 1's own language while simultaneously person 2 will hear 1 as person 2's own language. I assume, don't quote me bro.
Everyone is dealt cards with a hand etching signifying rock, paper, and scissors. Everyone is against everyone and has to play with a consenting player at a casino-like dealer table. There are rules everyone has to abide by which sinister Michael Douglas explains in the movie. They have 4 hours to compete.
It's a pretty gripping movie because Kaisi is forced to form alliances and use his big brain get out of this tournament alive. This movie is scattered with beautiful visual effects that seems to illustrate the inner workings of his thought process. I feel this compliments the movie once you dig the meaning behind each one.
Oh and there's also a clown alter ego. What importance does it play in the movie? Absolutely nothing. Actually, it's one of his dissociations when he gets overwhelmed usually by frustration or anger and everyone around him turn into ugly aliens that this clown slaughters. I think just for the aesthetics it's cool but no, this movie is not at all centered around a clown slicing up bad guys on subways. This is just his bottled up anger and frustrations. I must admit, I was a little bummed when I realized that when I first watched this movie. It is on the movie poster after all. At least there's cool clowny fighting scenes throughout this movie.
This movie is very loosely based on the manga. Kaiji, the anime, is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Is this film for kids? Yes. There's no nudity but a small amount of cursing in other languages. No substantial blood or gore than your average flick. This is more of an action thriller. It's a pretty underappreciated movie outside of China anyway. That's why I wanted to include this on my blog, even if this isn't horror.
No disclaimers for this movie that's worth mentioning. You kinda get to learn curse worse in different languages so that's more of a plus really.
So if this movie had a message, what would it be? It's not about the life or death game of rock, paper, scissors bUt ThE fRiEnDs YoU mAdE aLoNg ThE wAyyyyyyy.
My verdict?
If you are interested in watching this movie for yourself, click here to see where you can catch it on via JustWatch
Psst! Don't tell anyone, but you can actually watch it for free on youtube! Update: Video got terminated đŸ˜©
