As I’ve mentioned many times before, one of the great things about being a relatively new Keigo Higashino fan is that every time I’ve finished reading yet another terrific story from him, inevitably there will already have been a TV or movie adaptation of the works.
And so it was with “The Name Of The Game Is A Kidnapping”, a Keigo Higashino novel I recently finished (and loved) and, when going online to see it a Special or Film had been made of it, found that not only HAD they made a movie of it, I had actually downloaded it along with a few other flicks some 15+ years earlier!
As I recall, I was trying to acquire the 2007 Erika Sawajiri movie “Closed Note” and on the same movie film forum they had also just uploaded a 2003 film called “g@me” with Naohito Fujiki and Yukie Nakama. I grabbed both of them, but as I was in Erika Sawajiri mode at the time, I chose to watch Closed Note...and simply put g@me in a folder on my HD for another time! There it sat for YEARS until, looking up film adaptation of The Name Of The Game is a Kidnapping and seeing the movie poster for that same film I had downloaded a decade + ago:
"HEY!" I gasped. "I HAVE this movie somewhere!" Racing to my shelves, I found the hardrive and located the folder containing the film...but sadly, it was so OLD that the file was utterly corrupted and unplayable! D'OH! Undeterred, I ran over to the forums and went through the long and tedious process of acquiring it all over again! Succeeding, I had it it hand, and just this past weekend I FINALLY got to watch it!!!
Our story:
The main character Shunsuke Sakuma (Naohito Fujiki) is a flashy ad man in charge of a Beer Company’s promotion, including the launch of a new item.. Arrogant and ruthless, he executes plans in a calculating and intricate way built for success!
With meticulous thought and planning, he has no room for failure…thus he is stunned and shocked when his ideas are nixed and he is taken off the team by the beer company’s president Katsutoshi Katsuragi (Ryo Ishibashi) who feels Sakuma's ideas are not the direction he sees...and wants Sakuma OFF the team!!!
A blow to his ego, Sakuma spends the evening drinking and then somehow finds himself at the gates of Katsuragi’s home that night. Whether he is there to confront him with fisticuffs or to beg for reconsideration of his plans, he does not know, but before he can act, he sees the most unusual sight: a young woman (Yukie Nakama) sneaking over the walls of the property and scurrying away!
Intrigued, Sakuma follows the girl as she takes a cab to a hotel and, when he sees that she cannot get a room no matter how much she pleads, finally confronts her and, introducing himself as a business associate of the Katsuragi Company, asks who she is and what she was doing at the house!
The girl confesses that she is Juri Katsuragi, the black sheep daughter of the family whose mother was one of father’s mistresses. Always at odds with Chiharu, the family’s real daughter, the two sisters had a heated argument that evening which blew up, causing Juri to suddenly decide to run away from home!
Trying to calculate how he can use this information against Katsuragi, Sakuma temporarily takes the girl to his place, deciding what to do. Juri would like to leave the town and go to a faraway place, but to do that, she needs money, and lots of it.
With Sakuma hell-bent on punishing Katsuragi and with Juri needing funds, they come up with an elaborate plan: to FAKE a kidnapping! Sakuma will pretend to kidnap Juri and then hold her for some 3 million in ransom, and then split it evenly between the two of them! With Juri’s family connections and Sakuma’s savvy, they create an elaborate con to trick the blustery Katsuragi out of his money and make him feel the dregs of defeat!
Despite his intricate and careful plans, Juri infrequently listens to what he says and acts on her own…and at the end of the day, may be hiding a huge secret of her OWN, one which threatens to undermine Sakuma's finely laid plans!
My summation of the film: Thought the first half of the movie was a fairly faithful take on the book, with only minor changes (like Katsuragi owning a beer company instead of a car company), the second half really veered into uncharted territory!
At the place in the film where the novel ended, I was surprised to see a good 35 minutes of story “added” to the film’s conclusion, and one I can’t say I was too enthusiastic about! Without giving away any spoilers, I really liked the end of the book but found the new ending in the movie quite bland and cliched in that generic j-drama kind of way.
Too bad, as I feel both Fujiki and Nakama great in their roles (though Yukie looked a bit old to play a runaway teenager, but I digress…) and did a convincing job!
Nonetheless, another fun experience reading the Keigo Higashino novel and then immediately watching the adaptation. Always interesting how they bring the book to life and the cinematic choices they make!
