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G@me

Japan 2003
produced by
Hiroyoshi Koiwai for Fuji Television
directed by Satoshi Isaka
starring Naohito Fujiki, Yukie Nakama, Ryudo Uzaki, Izam, Ryo Ishibashi
screenplay by Masaya Ozaki, based on a novel by Keigo Higashino

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Flix.com

Sakuma (Naohito Fujiki), creative director in a large advertising company, has just lost a top contract to an inhouse competitor, and he blames it all on bossy and self-righteous Katsuragi (Ryo Ishibashi), boss of the client company.

One day, when he walks by Katsuragi's house though, he sees his daughter Juri (Yukie Nakama) climb over the wall surrounding the premises. Out of curiosity, he follows her, and before you know it, she has moved in with him, and has persuaded him to help her in faking her own kidnapping to get back at her father, with the intention to share the ransom money in the end.

At first, Sakuma is less than convinced by the idea, but before long he develops a certain kind of criminal energy, and a water-proof plan for collecting the ransom money - plus he and Juri start a stormy affair.

The handing over of the ransom money works out as planned, too, but then Sakuma leanrs that Juri has died, and has died on the day she has gone missing - and he finds out his Juri isn't Juri at all but her sister Chiharu, who has killed Juri in an accident and now she and her father had made up the whole kidnapping plot to clear Chiharu of the whole thing and have Sakuma as a scapegoat. Also, Chiharu now claims she has never loved Sakuma in the fkirst place - but Sakuma knows she is lieing. So, to get back at Katsuragi, he persuades Chiharu to go to Australia with him and makes up another kidnapping plot, knowing quite well that Katsuragi will arrive at the scene with the police this time - and he serves them with the perfect scapegoat for the whole thing, the real Juri's no-good boyfriend who has driven her to drug-addiction.

Seeing Chiharu in Sakuma's arms all of a sudden tells Katruragi he's lost the game after all, something  he's not used to ... but in the end, everybody loses, as Chiharu decides she has to atone for having killed Juri - even though it was an accident - and leaves Sakuma to move back in with her father ...

 

A film that has two sides to it: The build-up, when Sakuma and Chiharu make up an elaborate kidnapping plot, works really well on a storytelling level (and isn't even let down by the impersonal, too-slick-for-its-own good direction), but the first climax (when Sakuma learns he was double-crossed by everyone) is a definite letdown, simply because it seems to lack the necessary enthusiasm on every level (narrative and directorial alike), and everything that happens after that, including a love story and a second kidnapping plot never again matches the intensity of the initial build-up.

So I guess the film is watchable, but be warned, the whole conclusion is a bit of a disappointment, plus at approximately 110 minutes, it runs a good half hour too long.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
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love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
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Out now from
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