When a fresh graduate Shinomiya Yu (Tabe Mikako) recieves a box full of banknotes and a black envelope, we don’t need any further explanation. The Liar Game starts again. Along with her, the notorious swindler and psychology prodigy Akiyama Shinichi Matsuda Shota), now a university professor, is pulled into the game.
But hey, where is Kanzaki Nao?
After two seasons in TV and a movie, the eponymous game is back in Liar Game: Reborn. Once again we will witness how twenty or so players risk heavy debt in a game of complex rules, shifting alliances and backstabbing. The rules seem simple at first, but carry hidden implications - finding and exploiting them will allow an underdog to turn the tables and break out of a seemingly losing situation. And rest assured, the tables will turn more than once, this one aspect of Liar Game did not change. Yet this movie does not live up to its promise.
As much as I like Tabe Mikako, she's no Toda. With her gone, it's now clear how much did the show depend on her character. Shinomiya Yu was announced to be a different, more able person than the stupid-naive Kanzaki Nao. Yet it doesn't show - she's just as naive and when she finally appears to act out of her own initiative, it soon ends up in a train wreck, just the right situation for Akiyama to come in and save the day.
A similar case can be made for Makiko Esumi and Ashida Mana, who play Omega and Alice, the masterminds behind this Liar Game. Ashida's appearance was another hyped one - she featured prominently in the trailer and had a dedicated short spin-off drama before the movie. With that much publicity one could expect that they'll be taking a major role in the events of the movie together with a large chunk of the screen time, at the very least giving Yokoya from the series a run for his money. And how did it end up? They have a total of maybe four scenes and play no active role in the game. They might just as well not have been there.
And the rest of the cast? We have series regulars Fukunaga (Suzuki Kosuke) and "Gold Tooth" Tanimura (Watanabe Ikkei) - another pair of sideline commentators. On the bright side, among the players we'll see Hamada Mari reprising her role as Sakamaki Mai from The Final Stage and Koike Eiko in what probably was the most decent performance among the main cast.
The movie features only a single game, "Modified Musical Chairs" and at two hours time it feels drawn out in the middle and ending prematurely in the finale. It seems as if they have originally planned a second game and a different finale, but ended up having to revise the script and had trouble tying up the loose ends.
Is it a worthwhile watch? If you saw the earlier Liar Games and are hungry for more - go ahead, it is ultimately more of the same. A little under-cooked, but most of the ingredients are in place - the games, the mood, the music and most of the cast. Otherwise, you're better off watching - or rewatching - the series. In my eyes, The Final Stage was a satisfying closure. Reborn doesn't bring anything new to the table. It doesn't bode well for the future of the series.
Food for thought
I'm not familiar with the manga and to what extent the drama storyline stays true to it, so I'm basing what I'm about to write on a Liar Game Wiki post. In the manga, "Modified Musical Chairs" was the fourth round of the original Liar Game Tournament. It was held after the "Contraband Game", and had Akiyama and Kanzaki Nao competing against Yokoya and Funakoshi Eiichiro's cult leader character Fukunaga was the leader of extras instead of Ikeda Tetsuhiro's character.
While the producers might have had little choice but to replace Toda's character, there seems to be no apparent reason for keeping Fukunaga out of the game he originally appeared in. I am no less puzzled as to why Yokoya was replaced - he appears in at least one scene in the movie (it may only be a flashback though).
Looking at the game's resolution makes the fact that this game is recycled from the original series story-line most visible. While "Modified Musical Chairs" was replaced in the drama series, its resolution was adapted and used in one of the replacements. Now hearing almost the same lines spoken out for the second time makes it feel distinctly out of place to anyone familiar with the drama series. You simply can't make the same Grand Revelation twice.
What are your thoughts? Am I being needlessly critical here?
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