Quick Review #32: "Houtei Yuugi"

Title: Houtei Yuugi / 法廷遊戯

Rating:  6/10

Recommended for: 

Those who are fans of Sugisaki Hana and Kitamura Takumi and like suspense stories with a humanity angle

Liked:

- Disclaimer first: I haven't read the original so my review is solely based on the movie. The good part about the story was the intertwined fates of the three main characters and how that led to the tragedy years later. While the developments were partly due to unfortunate coincidences, a large degree of things spinning out of control was still down to the personal choices made by the trio. As such, I think that this inability to attribute the blame to any of them was what made the story compelling and thought-provoking towards the end despite the lacklustre start. Suspense-wise, I thought that the story was OK and it wasn't too hard to predict how things were going to develop once you got past the point showing how the trio had met in the past.

- Sugisaki Hana as usual, was phenomenal. Kitamura Takumi managed to show the extreme side of his character and was such a great sparring partner for her especially in the scene where they had a showdown. It was gratifying to see these two promising young actors deliver such a great performance.

Disliked: 

- The first part of the movie spent so much time on the mock trials led by Kitamura's character but there wasn't any convincing explanation as to why his classmates went along with this idea and what they intended to achieve through these trials. And logically, there were some parts which didn't make much sense so I was really bored until the main trio graduated from university and the film finally got to the meaty part of the story.

- Nagase Ren's acting wasn't that bad but because of his co-stars who were too good and had lots of room to flesh out their characters, it made him pale in comparison. Coupled with the fact that his character was supposed to be quite subdued emotionally, this made it even more difficult for him to shine. As such, his acting came across as really bland and hardly eye-catching despite being the lead.