Archive for the ‘The Black Swindler’ Category
The Bad Swindler
SINGAPORE : To The Black Swindler’s credit, the story of Kurosagi, the Black Crane (Tomohisa Yamashita (picture) - who vows revenge on swindlers everywhere after his family was destroyed by a fraudster - has been serialised for more than 20 years in Japan in the weekly manga magazine Young Sunday.
To the movie’s discredit, the manga version is probably better. Or at least, it can’t be any worse than this.
The film starts promisingly, with snappy sequences and surreally-coloured asides to the audience. But as Kurosagi discovers that the trusted friend from whom he buys information about his targets is actually the man behind the downfall of his family, the movie descends into a long-winded unravelling of a convoluted plot held together by laboured Shakespearean references and motifs.
The androgynous Tomohisa, who is also a member of Japanese boyband NEWS, is a little wooden, but does convey a wry comicality when he dons his conman disguises.
Fans will enjoy the loving close-ups of Tomohisa, currently Japan’s sexiest man, but there’s little for anyone else. -
Channel News Asia