ザラ Notes: ライアーゲーム　ザ・ファイナルステージ Liar Game: The Final Stage

15 March 2010

ライアーゲーム　ザ・ファイナルステージ Liar Game: The Final Stage

Title: ライアーゲーム　ザ・ファイナルステージ Raiā Gēmu: Za Fainaru Sutēji (Liar Game: The Final Stage)
English Title: Liar Game: The Final Stage
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2010
Cast:

松田翔太 Matsuda Shota
戸田恵梨香 Toda Erika
田辺誠一 Tanabe Seīchi
鈴木浩介 Suzuki Kosuke
荒川良々 Arakawa Yosiyosi
濱田マリ Hamada Mari
和田聰宏 Wada Toshihiro
永山絢斗 Nagayama Kento
鈴木一真 Suzuki Kazuma
関めぐみ Segi Megumi
吉瀬美智子 Kichise Michiko
渡辺いっけい Watanabe Ikkei

SYNOPSIS
Kanzaki Nao and Akiyama Shinichi have gotten to the final showdown of the Liar Game Tournament. The final stage is based on a new game of deception, with JYP5 billion as the prize.

The concept of the game is based on the idea of temptation and pits the players against each other. In order to win, the players must ironically not seek to deceive one another but endeavor to trust each other and cooperate with each other. If they can do that, everyone is guaranteed to emerge as victors. Yet, maintaining mutual trust in this battle of wits is no mean feat. In addition, hiding among the finalists is a certain Player X, planted by the tournament organizers to cause disarray and serve as the ultimate trust assassin.

REVIEW
I liked Liar Game: The Final Stage but I think I watched it more likely because it is part of the Liar Game franchise rather than I found the plot interesting.

I didn't really enjoy the movie as much as I enjoyed the dramas, and it's possibly because with two hours, there is less time to set up the stories and build the tension. Not that the whole premise of the movie can actually be extended and made into a drama spanning several hours.

Or perhaps, I didn't find the movie enjoyable because it's the same old story with the same main characters anyway, albeit different supporting characters. The supporting characters will make logical but incorrect decisions and Kanzaki Nao, with Akiyama Shinichi's help, will save the day and everyone.

I didn't like how the tricks or the reasoning are explained soon after they were performed. To be fair, the same thing happened with the dramas but because the dramas have more time, the viewers actually have some time to try to figure out or guess what happened and why it happened. With the time constraint in the movie, this wasn't possible so it seemed like I was watching a how-to guide or instructional video instead of an investigative narrative.

The biggest disappointment with the movie, actually with the whole Liar Game franchise, is the fact that the romantic development between Shinichi and Nao was too subtle, to the point that it was almost non-existent. I know that the premise of Liar Game is not really romance but it would have been more fun to watch if the love story between the main characters was also shown.