ライアーゲーム (Liar Game)

Image copyright Fuji TV

Title: Liar Game
Genre: Psychological thriller
Episodes: 11
Broadcast network: Fuji TV
Completed Airing?: Yes

Kanzaki Nao is one of those sweet, giving, and above all honest people—so honest, in fact, that people often describe her as “stupidly honest.” She wouldn’t know how to lie to save her life. Unfortunately, it looks like she is going to have to learn, and learn fast. One day she returns home to find a black box sitting outside her door and in it is one hundred million yen (about $870,000) and a video tape explaining to her that she has entered into the Liar Game Tournament. It is now her job to fool her opponent, her former teacher, and steal his money from him. If she wins, she can keep the money; if she loses and her money is stolen, she will be in debt—lots of debt. She goes to her teacher for help, and he easily tricks her out of her money. Nao suddenly finds herself in a very bad situation and the police won't help her at all. With nowhere else to turn, she hunts down the swindler Akiyama Kenichi on the day he is released from prison and begs him for help.

That is where the real game begins.

This drama is absolutely fascinating. It was ranked as the second most satisfactory drama according to a survey done by Oricon Style (a magazine similar to Billboard Magazine), and for good reason. There is something about this drama that hooks you and refuses to let you go right up until the end. A lot of the fun is wondering what you would do if you were in this situation; I almost felt like I was in the game myself while I was watching it. There were a lot of times that I could predict what was going to happen, or at least understand the reasoning behind things that the people in the game were doing--and more often than not, I figured this out, oh, about ten seconds before it was explained. Still, even if I could get a lot of the little pieces, I had no idea whatsoever what was going on overall, and it made the week-long wait until the next episode almost unbearable at times.

It does start to get a little repetitive, especially when they take a while to explain something you've already figured out, and some of the characters are downright annoying and they just won't go away. Still, the soundtrack is absolutely wonderful and you can easily distract yourself with the odd lighting effects and colors. The final episode was extended to three hours as opposed to the usual one, and I was rather annoyed with the fact that almost two hours of that was recap of what had happened in the rest of the series, with a little bit of new footage in between. Still, overall this series is completely worth the time it takes to watch it. Every week I would try to get my roommate to come watch it with me, and nothing from asking to begging to bribing would get her to. Lo and behold, a few weeks ago she randomly watched the first episode and immediately IMed me demanding to know why I hadn't made her watch it while we were in Japan. My reaction was three simple words: "TOLD YOU SO!"

This is a drama that will keep you guessing right up until the end, and I fully maintain that every single person I know should be forced to watch it. What would you do if you were in that situation? How would you cheat the others out of their money? How would you manipulate everyone so that you were able to win? Would you exit if you had the chance, or would you continue on in the tournament with the goal of getting even more money? And why does the man who explains all the rules to the players look like the dude from Saw?

Some things we'll never know.

Liar Game Official Site