Quick Review #149: Rokunin no usotsuki daigakusei (movie)

Title: Rokunin no usotsuki daigakusei / 六人の噓つき大学生　　　　　　　

Rating: 2 / 10

Recommended for: 

Who like the cast and don't mind the predictable and at-times yawn-inducing storyline 

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I have not read the original novel.

Liked:

- The cast of young actors/actresses did a decent job in portraying their characters. Despite being in a "closed room" setting with hardly any variation in the background and the limited developments largely depending on their solo acting and interactions with one another, everyone contributed in keeping things going, albeit in varying degrees.

Disliked: 

- Often, the promotional slogans for suspense/mystery/detective dramas and movies tend to dangle the claim that the viewer will be in for a big shock or the story will be so unexpected so as to attract viewers' attention and interest. However, such claims tend to fall flat especially which is usually due to these claims increasing the viewers' expectations to such a point that there are huge shoes to fill. For me, while I like being pleasantly surprised when the result is better than expected, the disappointment I experience when the actual turns out to be way less than the expected is usually amplified.

In this movie's case, it was somewhat unexpected that even with a novel forming the basis of and supposedly driving the plot, the story didn't come across as coherent and convincing. Not only was the motive of the culprit so ridiculous and trivial, I was flabbergasted and rolling eyes at how someone became the scapegoat and yet didn't clear his/her name despite knowing who had wronged him/her. To begin with, the culprit's motive of taking revenge for someone who he/she had no vested or direct interest in just seemed unbelievable. Why would someone go to this extent at the potential risk of damaging one's career prospects just to get back at that company which didn't really commit a heinous crime or something? 

What was more bewildering was, the scapegoat went through such a great extent to take up the blame for someone who made use of him/her, managed to find proof to clear his/her name and yet did not go the last mile to seek justice for himself/herself? Not to mention the process of the final revelation many years later which hardly felt like vindication for the scapegoat, these developments were such a torture to watch.

- Due to the lacklustre story, the cast certainly could have done better than this but were very much limited by the constraints of their uninspiring characters. Especially since I've seen much better performances from them before in other works, I feel that this movie didn't bring out the best from them which was a huge waste of their potential.