Drama Views: Liar Game (2014)

Liar Game is about a naive girl, Nam Da Jung (Kim So Eun) who finds herself playing a manipulative TV game show, with the help of a handsome swindler and ex-convict, Ha Woo Jin (Lee Sang Yoon). Despite being a remake of a Japanese show, tvN's Liar Game still manages to be thrilling and engaging. I watched the Japanese version several years ago under the coercion of my friend, and was highly bothered by the extremely OTT characters like Fukunaga.
Korea's Liar Game managed to capture my heart in a way the Japanese version failed to do so. tvN, give me season 2 asap please!!!



Pros:

 - HA. WOO. JIN. I would marry him. Smart, sexy and fiercely loyal (sadly to Dajung only).
This is my first Lee Sang Yoon drama and he has won me over completely. I used to think he was a really old ahjussi actor, but he was so gloriously hot in this drama. Can he keep those bangs forever?

- The use of the main trio's background story as the main plot instead of the games. Yes, Liar Game should be about the games. But most people already knew the rules and outcomes of the games from watching the Japanese version. Thus, I feel the producers made an excellent decision to shift the focus from the games to the (way more interesting) back story.

- A chilling villain in the form of Kang Do Young (Shin Sung Rok). He is not the scariest villain I've ever seen in a kdrama (that title belongs to Chae Do Woo of Story of a Man), but he comes close. The scariest ones are the ones that are smart, manipulative and patient. And worse, Kang Do Young can control his micro-expressions, fooling even our human lie detector Ha Woo Jin! Yet, somehow, I felt sorry for him upon learning his childhood.

- Interesting side characters in the form of Jamie and Jo Dal Goo. Jamie's was a little too OTT during her reveal in the first round, but she was constantly in the grey area for the rest of the show, and I love grey characters. No one is ever fully evil or fully good.

Cons:
- The setting of a game show took out a lot of Liar Game's bite in my opinion. How far can they go with a TV show? But in the last episode, it seems we're going into the real Liar Game, outside of TV. Yes please!

- Poor explanation of the game rules. Without watching the Japanese version and without reading all the wonderful recaps online, I would have been quite clueless about what was happening.

- Da Jung's character. Da Jung is already a step up from her Japanese counterpart, but she's still too naive for my liking. I like my heroines smart and kickass. Worse, her character kinda got shafted in the last few episodes in favour of exploring the relationship between Woo Jin and Do Young. She had some moments of brilliance though - "You said that money moves people, right? You have all that money, but where is everyone standing? Why aren’t they moving toward that money?”

Favourite scenes:
Anything with Ha Woo Jin. Especially the 'Da Jung ah' scene. Made me squee!!

And the scene where Jamie doubled crossed Kang Do Young!