IF the contestants in “The Hunger Games” had been forced to kill each other by playing rock-paper-scissors instead of with bows and arrows, they might have earned a place at the gaming tables of “Animal World.”

Drawing equally from the altered-reality universes of comic books and video games, “Animal World” is an exciting if disjointed mash of ideas and emotions. When it fi nally settles down to business on board a sinister ship called Destiny, the tale turns into a risk-it-all gambling fantasy that is surprisingly gripping.

Opening the Shanghai International Film Festival with a punch, its fl orid special effects budget raises the stakes for Han Yan, the young director whose award-winning tragi-comedy “Go Away Mr. Tumor” was China’s Oscar hopeful in 2015.

This is a rare case of a Chinese fi lm adapted from a Japanese manga, and if positive box-offi ce results are delivered, it could open fl oodgates of new material for idea-strapped Chinese producers. “Animal World” is actually the second big-screen adaptation of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s comic, following a well-received 2009 Japanese version, “Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler,” and a 2011 sequel. The cur-rent fi lm ends on a note that leaves the door open for a part two.

When Zheng Kaisi (Li Yifeng) is introduced as a disheartened fl oor entertainer in a clown suit at a gaming arcade, he seems to be suffering from a full-on superhero complex. Rapidly cross-cutting between the regular-guy

Zheng and his evil-looking clown per-sona, Han puts the audience on a puz-zling trail. Is the protagonist human or superhuman?

In the fi rst of several big action scenes, Zheng morphs into a leering killer clown along the lines of the Joker, with two comically colored swords carried on his back. The people around him on a subway car transform into gooey animal-like monsters that spurt syrupy blood when hit by the clown’s martial arts attacks.

These are soon revealed as the vio-lent fantasies of an impotent teenager, taking place in Zheng’s head as he sits in a hospital ward visiting his mother, who has been in a coma for years. He has become acquainted with young nurse Qing (Zhou Dongu of “Soul Mate”) but hasn’t the money to pursue her. In fact, it’s she who loans him the cash to pay for his mom’s care.

The stakes are upped when Zheng’s childhood pal Li Jun (Cao Bingkun), a real estate agent, proposes a sure-fi re deal that will pay off his debts with the hospital. All he has to do is sell the family apartment. The contract is signed with a devilish-looking blond

alien type, who of course cheats on the deal. This propels the story into another edge-of-the-seat action scene, a car and motorbike chase through city streets at night.

It’s another of the hero’s fantasies, however; in reality, he has been taken to meet the boss of bosses, a Mephis-tophelian Michael Douglas, who makes him an offer he can’t refuse. To pay off the interest on the astronomical debt he has incurred by signing the contract (close your eyes on logic here), he must participate in a game.

He wakes up and fi nds himself branded with a number, in the com-pany of similar desperadoes who will play against him in a death match.

Zheng positively blooms in this macho death environment. It is men-tioned that his late father was a math teacher, and with a cool head he forms a trio with the traitorous Li Jun and a newfound follower to amass a certain type of card. Li rises to the occasion, every inch a hero who uses his real brains rather than his fantasy brawn to save his soul in a genuine surprise ending.

The whole offbeat cast has something to add to the proceedings. Though he doesn’t have that much screen time, Douglas reappears throughout the story at intervals, a satisfying puppet master who sets the rules and expects the worst of human nature. Speaking English to everyone else’s Mandarin, he’s humorous without being facetious and scary in his cynicism.

The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies)

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Fri/Sat/Sun June 29~July 1, 2018

(June 29)

TheatersTheaters

ScheduleScheduleCurrently playing

Animal World (Chinese)——————————————

Incredibles 2 (English)——————————————Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

(English)——————————————Escape Plan 2: Hades (Chinese)——————————————

Lobster Cop(Chinese)

——————————————The Leakers (Chinese)

——————————————The Coach (English)

——————————————

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《动物世界》

Starring: Li Yifeng, Michael Douglas, Zhou Dongyu, Cao Bingkun, Wang Ge, Su Ke Director: Han Yan

Animal World

Zhou Dongyu as the young nurse Qing.

Li Yifeng as Zheng Kaisi in a clown suit in “Animal World.” File photos