Liar Game
Nam Da-jung is an innocent college student who passes a hidden camera audition and is invited to join the reality show Liar Game, a psychological survival game wherein participants trick each other and the one who ultimately succeeds wins the prize money of ₩10 billion (US$9.3 million). Tempted with the chance to pay off her debts, Da-jung joins the game and gets conned out of the initial money given to her. In desperation, she asks genius ex-con swindler and former psychology professor Ha Woo-jin to help her win the game.
This series is a Korean production adapted from the Japanese "Liar Game" by Shinobu Kaitani. I went into this series having just finished the first two seasons of the Japanese version. I had not seen any of trailers for the show, so I was not sure what to expect. Unlike the manga, the show starts of with our genius ex-con Akiyama realized here as Ha Woo-jin teaching at a university. Then we go on to our main female character and how she gets roped into the Liar game.
I really liked this series. I think the team that created the show did a great show at bringing the soul and feel of the characters in the manga but had them naturally inhabit this world that was shown to us in Seoul. I felt that the characters were realized incredible well.
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| Lee San-yoon as Ha Woo-jin |
Ha Woo-jin to me is very much Akiyama though Ha Woo-jin does seem a lot more mature in age compared to the manga character. You got to know the character, what drove him and even his weaknesses. One thing that I had not liked about the Japanese version was that Akiyama was shown as if nothing moved him and had no flaws. Though Akiyama is a genius, he is always the most social or diplomatic person which is why Nam Da-jung had a role. She could interact with people with a lot more ease and we see in a number of situations that Ha Woo-jin had to relay on her to gather people for their team. Another thing I observed from the manga was that at times Akiyama was a somewhat defensive player, he would seat back a watch the game unfold before he made a move and this at times became very dangerous because his adversaries always took the initiative.
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| Sin Seong-rok as Kang Do-young |
Kang Do-young was just a menacing adversary. He too was greatly realized and not just as Yokoya Norihiko but a nemesis in this world. We got a a good sense of his character but were constantly surprised by him. He was a match for Ha Woo-jin and might even be better than him in some ways became he seemed tuned into ways he could manipulate people. I got chills when they revealed that he was part of Walden 2. That just called to mind a certain character from a series called "Monster".
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| Kim So-eun as Nam Da-jung |
Nam Da-jung was also well done, though there were times I felt frustrated by her, but considering the source material that is not a surprise. What I really liked was what the team created as the motivation for Nam Da-jung joining Liar Game and in particular saving her former teacher. That motivation, I think was very compelling and that everyone could relate to.
I thought Jamie was a great character and I could see Fukunaga (manga) in her. She was fun, smart and sassy. Jamie, the debt collector Ajussi, and the hacker were some of the side character that really rounded things out.
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| Liar Game mask |
We also got to see what people Ha Woo-jin had relationships with before he got involved with the Liar Game. I thought this was great because in the manga we hear about him mention a friend but that was all. This helped to see how he functioned in the world.
Another good part about this show was that showed us that the main three characters had a past together, which brought things around to where they were now. Getting to see the past, we find out more about Ha Woo-jin and his mother. The reason Ha Woo-jin went to jail was because he went after the people that conned his mother and because of this she took her life. Also knowing that Kang Do-young blames Ha Woo-jin's mother for what had happened to him in Walden 2, gives more compelling reasons as to why Kang Do-young orchestrated the Liar Game to have Ha Woo-jin involved.
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| President game face off |
This show also did a great job with the games and how they were realized, though I knew certain endings . It still great watching how it happened. I liked how they brought things up to 2014, with the reality show, the cell phone and the broadcasting. Though I suspected Jamie's character when she first appears it was still great to see the reveal. The aesthetics of the show were also more to my liking. Although we had only two masks and they were gold. The masks' style, I think were closer to the manga than the Japanese version which were more grotesque.
I really liked how they changed the of "Is it wrong to be foolish?" to "is it wrong to trust people?" because for me I would yes without must hesitation it is wrong to be foolish. However, it's not wrong to trust people but like message it began to convey was that you have to get to know someone to trust them and trust is earned. Which is why I was a little disappointed at the end with Nam Da-jung, despite everything that she went through she still concluded that trust was based on faith. I think that doesn't go along with anything that was conveyed, particularly through her relationship with Ha Woo-jin. Then we were left with a cliffhanger. Liar Game continues.
That being said I watched the show with subtitles and I can't be sure if the exact meaning of things are as their true meaning and connotation in Korean.
I thought this Liar Game was a great adaption of the manga. Not only that it was just a good show.
Whether you are familiar with the manga or not I would recommend this show.
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