[REVIEW] Liar Game
Jul. 4th, 2009 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mecTitle: Liar Game
Genre: Thriller
Episodes: 11
Cast: Toda Erika, Matsuda Shota, Kichise Michiko
Plot: Gullible girl teams up with devious ex-con in order to survive in the dog eat dog world of the "Liar Game".
Kanzaki Nao (Erika) is a nice girl. Really nice. She'll believe the best of anyone, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, and she's the kind of girl who actually would give you her last Rolo. Needless to say, she's never dreamed of swindling anyone, but when she comes home one day to find a hundred million yen and a card saying she has been chosen to participate in the "Liar Game", her naïveté and honesty make her an easy mark. She has to trick her opponent out of his hundred million in order to win, but he happens to be her former teacher. Nao can't possibly trick him, can she?
Of course not. That would be mean. Nao makes the mistake of trusting him, which means she'll be a hundred million in debt if she doesn't manage to get it back. No college student has that much to spare, even in j-dramas. Nao's friendly neighbourhood cop (uh…kind of) suggests she contact a former psych student who's just getting out of jail for swindling. Akiyama Shinichi (Matsuda) knows all the right buttons to push and he's no stranger to manipulation, but he's not exactly a warm and fuzzy kind of guy. (If he had been, I doubt he'd have lasted long in prison, especially when you consider how pretty he is.)
Still, Nao's innocence and trusting nature has to be good for something. Akiyama eventually agrees to help her, provided he gets half her profits. Her profits turn out to be nothing, this round, but a team is formed. Nao progresses through the rounds, which become increasingly complicated and risky, with Akiyama by her side. Sort of. He's interested in finding out what's going on, and Nao's purity reminds him of his dead mother, for whose sake he committed the crime that saw him land in jail. Between Akiyama's skill and guile and Nao's open friendliness, they continue to play the Liar Game.
Personally, I wasn't enamoured of Nao, though she definitely improved over the course of the series. No, the appeal for me was two-fold. Akiyama is well worth watching, whether you find Matsuda Shota attractive or not (and I do), and there's always an element of uncertainty with him, especially in the last few episodes.
The other aspect that lured me in was the games themselves. Each round has its own pitfalls and perils, with potential allies and enemies to be made and manipulated, and I had great fun trying to work out the solutions. (Explanations are provided - they don't leave you in the dark forever, thankfully!)
A word of warning: the first 10 episodes are about 36 mins long but the final one is a 3-hour special which basically recaps everything that's gone before. There are also some fairly significant changes from the manga (which I haven't read) as that, to the best of my knowledge, is still being published in Japan.
Genre: Thriller
Episodes: 11
Cast: Toda Erika, Matsuda Shota, Kichise Michiko
Plot: Gullible girl teams up with devious ex-con in order to survive in the dog eat dog world of the "Liar Game".
Kanzaki Nao (Erika) is a nice girl. Really nice. She'll believe the best of anyone, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, and she's the kind of girl who actually would give you her last Rolo. Needless to say, she's never dreamed of swindling anyone, but when she comes home one day to find a hundred million yen and a card saying she has been chosen to participate in the "Liar Game", her naïveté and honesty make her an easy mark. She has to trick her opponent out of his hundred million in order to win, but he happens to be her former teacher. Nao can't possibly trick him, can she?
Of course not. That would be mean. Nao makes the mistake of trusting him, which means she'll be a hundred million in debt if she doesn't manage to get it back. No college student has that much to spare, even in j-dramas. Nao's friendly neighbourhood cop (uh…kind of) suggests she contact a former psych student who's just getting out of jail for swindling. Akiyama Shinichi (Matsuda) knows all the right buttons to push and he's no stranger to manipulation, but he's not exactly a warm and fuzzy kind of guy. (If he had been, I doubt he'd have lasted long in prison, especially when you consider how pretty he is.)
Still, Nao's innocence and trusting nature has to be good for something. Akiyama eventually agrees to help her, provided he gets half her profits. Her profits turn out to be nothing, this round, but a team is formed. Nao progresses through the rounds, which become increasingly complicated and risky, with Akiyama by her side. Sort of. He's interested in finding out what's going on, and Nao's purity reminds him of his dead mother, for whose sake he committed the crime that saw him land in jail. Between Akiyama's skill and guile and Nao's open friendliness, they continue to play the Liar Game.
Personally, I wasn't enamoured of Nao, though she definitely improved over the course of the series. No, the appeal for me was two-fold. Akiyama is well worth watching, whether you find Matsuda Shota attractive or not (and I do), and there's always an element of uncertainty with him, especially in the last few episodes.
The other aspect that lured me in was the games themselves. Each round has its own pitfalls and perils, with potential allies and enemies to be made and manipulated, and I had great fun trying to work out the solutions. (Explanations are provided - they don't leave you in the dark forever, thankfully!)
A word of warning: the first 10 episodes are about 36 mins long but the final one is a 3-hour special which basically recaps everything that's gone before. There are also some fairly significant changes from the manga (which I haven't read) as that, to the best of my knowledge, is still being published in Japan.