Movies like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011)
The best movies like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011) are Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji: Final Game (2020) and Kakegurui: The Movie (2019). If Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler hooked you with its thriller and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHigh and Low (1963)8.4/10 from 1,239 votes
- NewestAi wa Tanken (Love is a Dagger) (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseKaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009)Also in Japanese
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009)
Kaiji Ito moves to Japan after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two years later and his life is no better. A debt collector named Endo arrives to collect money owed. The debt collector offers two choices to Kaiji: spend 10 years paying off his loan or board a gambling boat for one night to repay his debt & possibly make a boat load of money. Could the debt collector Endo actually be setting up Kaiji? One way or another, for Kaiji it's going to be the night of his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKaiji: Final Game (2020)
Kaiji is about to have his life changed. The thrill is beyond anything he, or most people, have experienced. The adventure is not without risk and danger however. He is given four games, which are challenges, and include life and death situations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKakegurui: The Movie (2019)
Hyakkaou Private Academy. An institution for the privileged with a very peculiar curriculum. You see, when you're the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, it's not athletic prowess or book smarts that keep you ahead. It's reading your opponent, the art of the deal. What better way to hone those skills than with a rigorous curriculum of gambling? At Hyakkaou Private Academy, the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. But when Yumeko Jabami enrols, she's gonna teach these kids what a high roller really looks like!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLiar Game: The Final Stage (2010)
In Liar game: Final Stage, Players are encouraged to trust each other to win the tournament. However, a mysterious player named X is secretly plotting to sabotage everyone of their chances to win the LGT.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh and Low (1963)
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStay (2005)
Psychiatrist Sam Foster has a new patient, Henry Letham, who claims to be suicidal. In trying to diagnose him, Sam visits Henry's prior therapist and also finds Henry's mother -- even though Henry has said that he murdered both of his parents. As reality starts to contradict fact, Sam spirals into an unstable mental state. Then he finds a clue as to how and when Henry may try to kill himself, and races to try to stop him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath Note (2006)
Light Yagami finds the "Death Note," a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to create a Utopia by killing the world's criminals, and soon the world's greatest detective, "L," is hired to find the mysterious murderer. An all out battle between the two greatest minds on earth begins and the winner will control the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle Royale (2000)
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath Note: The Last Name (2006)
In the second installment of the Death Note film franchise, Light Yagami meets a second Kira and faithful follower Misa Amane and her Shinigami named Rem. Light attempts to defeat L along with Teru Mikami (a Kira follower) and Kiyomi Takada (another Kira follower) but in the end will Light win? or will a Shinigami named Ryuk make all the difference in Light's victory or his ultimate death?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutrage (2010)
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuspect X (2008)
A male corpse is discovered with a smashed face and burned hands. Strangely, the cause of death is determined to be strangulation. When Detective Kaoru Utsumi attempts to corroborate the victim’s ex-wife’s alibi she discovers the mysterious neighbor and only a few small clues to help her disprove a seemingly "airtight" alibi...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Commuter (2018)
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: The Raven Chaser (2009)
A new member from the Black Organization that shrunk Shinichi's body manages to find out about Shinichi's transformation into Conan. This discovery starts to put those around him in danger as Gin and the other Black Organization members start to take action.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outsider (2018)
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElephant Song (2015)
A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFemale Yakuza Tale (1973)
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Yakuza (1974)
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974)
Agent Zero is a cop that uses her own methods for dealing with criminals. After she unlawfully kills a rapist in a violent fashion, she is sent to prison and stripped of her badge. But very soon after, a rich politician's daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang. Agent Zero is let out of prison with the mission of going undercover to find the politician's daughter and return her safely. Using her deadly red handcuffs, she disposes of the criminals one by one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Rain (1989)
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2017)
In 2012, Atsuya and his 2 childhood friends do something bad and run into an old general store. They decide to stay there until the morning. Late into the night, Atsuya sees a letter in the mailbox. The letter is addressed to the Namiya General Store and the letter was written by someone to consult about worries. Incredibly, the letter was written 32 years ago. The mailbox is somehow connected to the year 1980. Atsuya and his friends decide to write a reply and place their letter in the mailbox.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAi wa Tanken (Love is a Dagger) (2025)
Amelia and Wes have had a falling out in Japan, a foreign land neither of them are accustomed to. While doing some soul-searching on her own, Amelia begins to notice that she's being stalked by a strange man. Wes pleads with her to come back for her own safety - but Amelia's about to find that sometimes the most familiar faces are the most misgiving.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & mystery
xxxHOLiC The Movie: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005)
Invited to a wealthy client's mansion, time-traveling witch Yuko and her companions arrive to find a group of collectors assembled to participate in a mysterious auction. And the mystery only deepens when the collectors go missing one by one. As more guests disappear and strange occurrences abound, Yuko and her friends realize they must solve the mystery before they vanish as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSymmetropia (2017)
A man receives the most intense immersion therapy for an irrational fear (symmetry) ever. He’s blindfolded and driven to a forest where all the trees look the same, so that he is surrounded by symmetry. Also he is listening to tape of palindromes being read out loud.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Platonic Sex (2001)
When Aoi is gang-raped by her classmates and kicked out of her home by her own parents she sees no reason to continue living. Before she commits suicide, however, she receives an email on her cellphone from a man named Toshi addressed to a girl named Ai. The message simply thanks the girl for being alive, but this specific message has an effect on Aoi and she decides to keep on living. Without many options, Aoi resorts to everything from paid dating to porn to earn money and meets a lot of less than reputable characters. Throughout it all though she looks toward Toshi as her hope for happiness and the two form a relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barber's Sorrow (2002)
A S&M comedy about a masochist barber.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tomorrow's Joe The Movie (1980)
An abridged remake of the first Ashita no Joe TV series, released in 1980 to provide back-story for the second TV series to new fans who were not familiar with the first TV series or the manga.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Maison Ikkoku: The Final Chapter (1988)
Yagami comes to Maison Ikkoku, not knowing of Godai's and Kyoko's wedding, stating that she is now an adult, which she is, not knowing how to tell her, they panic, but she finds out in the end, and is heart broken.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Godzilla 1985 (1985)
Originally released in Japan as "The Return of Godzilla" in 1984, this is the heavily re-edited, re-titled "Godzilla 1985". Adding in new footage of Raymond Burr, this 16th Godzilla film ignores all previous sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1956 "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which also featured scenes with Burr edited into 1954's "Godzilla". This film restores the darker tone of the original, as we witness the nuclear destruction of giant lizard terrorizing Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClose Range Love (2014)
A smart high school student falls in love with her English teacher after she receives one-on-one tutoring from him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTombstone of the Fireflies (2008)
Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler?
The closest matches to Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler are Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji: Final Game (2020) and Kakegurui: The Movie (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler?
Start with Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), the closest match to Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler?
High and Low (1963), rated 8.4/10 by 1,239 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler?
Ai wa Tanken (Love is a Dagger) (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler?
Yes: Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji: Final Game (2020) and Kakegurui: The Movie (2019).
How are movies similar to Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.