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Liar Game - My review
May. 12th, 2015 03:31 pmNao Kanzaki (Toda Erika), is a college student who is known for her honesty and naivete. One day, she receives a black postcard indicating that she has been selected to participate in the "Liar Game Tournament". Along with the postcard is a box with 100 million yen (about $1,000,000). The goal of the first round of the game is to trick the other player out of their hundred million yen. At the end, the winner would get to keep the hundred million earned, and the loser owes the LGT (Liar Game Tournament office) 100 million yen, which "will be collected by any means and at all costs". Initially, she was frightened by this disturbing game, but was soon relieved when she discovered that her opponent was her second year junior high school teacher, Mr. Fujisawa. Because of her honest personality, Nao was easily tricked into giving Mr. Fujisawa her 100 million yen. She was devastated and reached out to police for help. The police could not help her and suggested that she ask help from Shinichi Akiyama (Matsuda Shota), a genius swindler who was recently released from jail for single-handedly bankrupting one of the biggest scamming companies in Japan. After learning the story from Nao, Akiyama decided to help her to win this Liar Game.
I liked the dorama more than the manga, and this is a first. I could not stand Nao-manga, but there has not been one moment where I did not sympathize with Nao-dorama. Sure she is still too trust-worthy, but she seemed more gullible than stupid (like I think she was in the manga). Her personality is necessary to the story; in fact, it is vital, and I am glad she was the way she was. Other positive thing in the dorama is that it explained better the games and the strategies to win them. At times, it was a bit confusing in the manga.
Matsuda Shota is, in my opinion, one of the most attractive Japanese actor. But I did not think so with the first glimpse we get from him. His hair was a mess, and the color... wth. But luckily it improved, and the fact that the scenes were filmed in dark places make his hair look darker than it seemed at first.
Sure, Akiyama-san is smart, cool, etc. But since I've read somewhere that Toda Erica had a hard time filming with him, because he wanted to re-do all scenes where he did not look "cool" (I am not sure if this fact is true or false), I had that image of him the whole time I watched the dorama :( and it ruined his cool image a little bit for me.
The last 3 episodes were not as entertaining and as good as the others. Mostly because of that weird guy with the white hair. I could not stand him. His "evil" laugh was pathetic, and it looked more ridiculous because he was cosplaying. I also did not like Mushroom guy (Fukunaga-san) that much, and it was not only the actor. It would have been better if the "real" Fukunaga, that is, the transvestite one, was in the story.
The last episode was just too long. I was surprised with the first episode because it lasted around 35min only, when most first-episodes have a duration of 1 hour and a half approx. And in Liar Game it was not only the first episode, but all of them. 35 minutes each. How weird. The last episode, however, has a duration of 2 hours and 25 minutes. I fast-forwarded at least 1 hour, because it was all recap from previous games. It was a bit of waste of time.
I liked the setting and the angles of the camera, because it was very "Japanese like". That is, anime-ish. The atmosphere is dark, and each place where the participants had their games was obscure but with vibrant lights. Sort of like an amusement park.
And there are 3 actors from Nodame! Two of them from the S-Oke <3
My final rating: 8/10. 8 for the first 8 episodes, 7 for the last 3.
I liked the dorama more than the manga, and this is a first. I could not stand Nao-manga, but there has not been one moment where I did not sympathize with Nao-dorama. Sure she is still too trust-worthy, but she seemed more gullible than stupid (like I think she was in the manga). Her personality is necessary to the story; in fact, it is vital, and I am glad she was the way she was. Other positive thing in the dorama is that it explained better the games and the strategies to win them. At times, it was a bit confusing in the manga.
Matsuda Shota is, in my opinion, one of the most attractive Japanese actor. But I did not think so with the first glimpse we get from him. His hair was a mess, and the color... wth. But luckily it improved, and the fact that the scenes were filmed in dark places make his hair look darker than it seemed at first.
Sure, Akiyama-san is smart, cool, etc. But since I've read somewhere that Toda Erica had a hard time filming with him, because he wanted to re-do all scenes where he did not look "cool" (I am not sure if this fact is true or false), I had that image of him the whole time I watched the dorama :( and it ruined his cool image a little bit for me.
The last 3 episodes were not as entertaining and as good as the others. Mostly because of that weird guy with the white hair. I could not stand him. His "evil" laugh was pathetic, and it looked more ridiculous because he was cosplaying. I also did not like Mushroom guy (Fukunaga-san) that much, and it was not only the actor. It would have been better if the "real" Fukunaga, that is, the transvestite one, was in the story.
The last episode was just too long. I was surprised with the first episode because it lasted around 35min only, when most first-episodes have a duration of 1 hour and a half approx. And in Liar Game it was not only the first episode, but all of them. 35 minutes each. How weird. The last episode, however, has a duration of 2 hours and 25 minutes. I fast-forwarded at least 1 hour, because it was all recap from previous games. It was a bit of waste of time.
I liked the setting and the angles of the camera, because it was very "Japanese like". That is, anime-ish. The atmosphere is dark, and each place where the participants had their games was obscure but with vibrant lights. Sort of like an amusement park.
And there are 3 actors from Nodame! Two of them from the S-Oke <3
My final rating: 8/10. 8 for the first 8 episodes, 7 for the last 3.
