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Liar Game japanese drama review
Completed
Liar Game
2 people found this review helpful
by chiha
Sep 20, 2021
11 of 11 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Fictional but scarily real.

No spoilers! Proceed safely. :)

“If you do not destroy your opponents, you will be destroyed yourself.”

With a 9.5/10 rating, Liar Game reaches the tier A of masterpieces which I believe should be watched by everyone.

The plot is simple at first glance. “Stupidly honest Nao” who can't lie to save her life gets embroiled in the titular Liar Game organised by an agency of the same name. The game is exactly what it sounds like, a game of lies and deception. And so many things could go wrong with this drama.

It could be full of plotholes and meaningless sub plots with an underwhelming ending that portrays that honesty is the best policy. But no.

Liar Game is different from anything out there and it is something I'd label truly unique in its execution. The slow build up as the rounds of the Liar Game progress from simplistic deception to organised play outs and how Nao navigates it with the help of Akiyama, a con artist who spent three years in jail, and manages to somehow remain “good” no matter how many times she is lied to.

There are many reasons why I should have docked more points from Liar Game. The garrish production, flashy editing, sudden close ups of the pixel dummy, dramatic shots of every character’s face was kind of tiring and bad acting which is actually good acting that is meant to be bad. But somehow I noticed these only when the episodes had ended. While the episode plays, the intriguing plot twists which make sense will keep your mental gears turning and twisting.

So what was the redeeming quality of the Liar Game?
The message of the story.
“I am painting something more abominable than hell. Humankind itself.”

Liar Game conveys a unique message through its pov protagonist Kanzaki Nao. Nearly all episodes begin with an intro showing the first shot of Kanzaki Nao as she passes under cherry blossoms, happy and unblemished. The sort of crystal conscience which shows on her face.

During the Liar Game, I was honestly so annoyed by Nao. She made the stupidest mistakes ever and I was tearing my hair out by the end of episode 1 but Nao is the antagonist and hero the Liar Game and that is the message of the show.

Just because most of us have become used to deceiving others, be it a smal lie to your parent or be it a lie to thousands of people to siphon their life savings off them; each and every one of us has lied at some point in their life. And lying has become a skill which we try to hone. But just because Nao has is trusting and doesn't deceive, it doesn’t make her absolutely stupid. There is strength in trusting, there is strength in not lying, the sort of strength which Nao has and it annoys people but it is a strength which most of us don’t have.

Liar Game has opened my eyes to so many things. I have always been sharply aware and wary of deception and Liar Game hasn’t convinced me nor does it try to convince its viewers to have blind faith in everyone. But through its crooked Liar Game which is so scarily similar to our lives, Liar Game sens a strong message to its viewers and I thunk it would echo differently with different viewers.

Lastly, I don’t want to be THAT person who screams for their favorite shows and tries to convince everyone to watch it, and I have never done that before, but now I would like to say that I’m not lying when I say that Liar Game is honestly such a freaking masterpiece. There are legit no plot holes, at least none that I could discover and any loop holes which were there were discussed and justified. The twists came out of nowhere but still made perfect sense.

There are also hints of romance but that’s left to the viewers interpretation.

I rated the rewatch value very high which is unlike me because I hardly ever rewatch shows. This is mostly because I would like to visit the show again with the ending in my mind.
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