Liar Game: Reborn (Movie)

Director: Hiroaki Matsuyama
Release: March 3, 2012 
Genre: Psychological
Adaptation: manga series by Shinobu Kaitani
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Story
Shinomiya Yu (Tabe Mikako), receives a box with a large sum of money and an invitation to the Liar Game. She has no choice, but to accept the invitation in order to avoid paying the debt. Shinomiya seeks help from her former psychology professor, Akiyama Shinichi (Mastuda Shota). At first he refuses to help her, but he also gets an invitation to the Game. So, he ends up participating in the game with her.

There are a total of twenty contestants in the game. They'll be playing a game called Musical Chairs. There are fifteen numbered chairs and they are all hidden through out the ruins of the buildings. They must find and sit on one of these chair within the time limit. Those who can't seat themselves within the time limit, will be dropped out. Although, the drop outs can't participate in the chair game, but they can be part of the voting. The person with the most votes will pick a chair to be eliminated. Also, the person who was sitting on that eliminated chair will be dropped out. The pattern continues until the last person sitting wins the game. In addition, each player receives twenty tokens which represent an amount of money that can be exchanged among the players. Despite that there is only one winner, the other players can still win some money from the amount of tokens they have left by the end of the game.

Shinichi deduces that this simple game requires teamwork to win. But this is a game of deception. It requires very careful tactics to put faith and trust in others.


Thoughts: I thought the game itself was interesting. But what's missing from this movie, besides Kanzaki Nao (Toda Erika), is the chemistry among the characters. I really did not care for any of the characters. And, they weren't that interesting. It's too bad that Nao is not here in this movie. Because, Shinichi had a interesting chemistry with Nao than with Yu. Yu and Shinichi, there's not much any interaction between them and they were boring. On top of that, I felt that this movie lost its edginess and there was nothing memorable about it. I would recommend watching seasons one and two of the TV drama and the first Liar Game movie: The Final Stage. Skip the Reborn movie.