Liar Game II | Review

Based on: Shinobu Kaitani’s manga Liar Game
Directed by: Hiroaki Matsuyama
Broadcast in: 2009

Overall rating: B+

In a world where lies are more prevalent than truth, Nao Kanzaki (played by Erika Toda) is the black sheep among us. Not only is she truthful, but she is also gullible: believing everything everyone tells her without a spec of mistrust. In the first series, we learned that the Liar Game brings out the greed in its players and is the main force behind their lies. The game forces everyone to become liars in order to trick their opponent out of 100 million yen making one person richer and everyone else in-debt of said 100 million yen. Nao finds herself in the game when she receives an invitation to play and opens a mysterious black box at her door-step. The box contains the huge amount of money (in cash) and by opening the box, she thereby agrees to play and refusal at that point will not be accepted. They never said what will happen but I imagine it won’t be pleasant. Throughout the game, Nao teams up with Shinichi Akiyama (Shota Matsuda) who is a master swindler skilled at mind games and tactics. They make an odd pair, but seem to feed off each other’s energy and ideals. In Liar Game II, Nao is once again invited to join in the game she thought she had already won. Lucky for her, Shinichi is also invited. The two, along with a past rival Yuji Fukunaga (Kosuke Suzuki), battles against the Liar Game organization (also known as LGT office) and a new adversary: Ryo Katsuragi (Rinko Kikuchi). Ryo is as cunning as Shinichi in manipulating the situation to her favor. Besides that, she also has a past connection to Shinichi. Can the Liar Game be won this time around? Read more @ yonasu.com.

 

Liar Game II

Popular Japanese drama, Liar Game, is coming back this November with a SECOND SEASON! A movie is also in the works for February of 2010. Source: Tokyograph.

Erika Toda (playing Nao Kanzaki) and Shota Matsuda (playing Shinichi Akiyama) are expected to reprise their roles. We last left off the show with Nao and Shinichi successfully completing the Liar Game without causing anyone to be hugely indebted or incredible rich. In the new season, the characters are going to enter another game. Not much details are being leaked, but I hope it’ll be as climatic as season one.

Things to Watch Out For

1.  My sudden disappearance on the blogosphere. The reason being I am working on my designs for art class, studying Japanese, helping out the family, and writing giant essay every now and then. I honestly have not seen any Asian drama shows for awhile. However, I did get whiff of some interesting ones that are coming up soon.

2.  The first is a film called Kuuki Ningyou (I am tentatively translating it as “Doll Atmosphere”)  directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. The movie centers around a vinyl doll that begin to develop human emotions. It is based on a manga of the same name by Yoshiie God. The storyline isn’t anything new, but every time it is used, there’s always something new (i.e. Absolute Boyfriend, My Girlfriend is a Robot, etc). I want to see how this film try to differentiate itself as well. Filming has just ended and the movie will be releasing next fall.

3.  Ninomiya Kazunari, who is quickly becoming my favorite actor, will be starring in a new drama called Door to Door. The story is inspired from a real-life story of a man named Bill Porter who works as a door-to-door salesman. Despite suffering from cerebral palsy, he manages to have the highest sales in the company. His story became a best-selling book and an Emmy nominated TV movie. Ninomiya will be playing a man name Hideo Kurasawa suffering from the same illness. The drama begins airing on March 29th.