SYNOPSIS:
Takashi Kurosaki (Yamashita Tomohisa), the 'Black Swindler', whose family was destroyed by a scam artist, was the only survivor left. Kurosaki grew up to become a professional swindler known as 'Kurosagi' who swindles other con artist. In recent years, He works with the master of all swindlers, Katsuragi Toshio (Yamazaki Tsutomu) who imposes a charge far higher than anything Kurosagi has ever paid. Will he be able to recover the money that was stolen? Will Yoshikawa Tsurara (Horikita Maki) love for Kurosagi ever blossom?
MOVIE REVIEW:
If one was to give the Black Swindler a short review, it could have been summarized as 'a manga/tv series turned into movie which had potential but squandered it away by over loading it with characters and tried to be too smart for it’s own good'.
The premise really had it’s potential. A 'Swindler of swindlers' concept sounded like a good set up for some challenging mind games that twist and turn till your head feel like bursting. For most part of The Black Swindler, it achieved the frustrating atmosphere that demands concentration at the introduction of every event and characters as it gave hints that it might be all linked together and things might be more than meets the eye.
If it wasn’t already hard enough to follow the story, William Shakespeare’ tale of Julius Caesar was thrown in for what might been an analogy of what’s going on with The Black Swindler. Coupled with the constant flashbacks and having two different scenarios narrating what’s happening, it could easily throw the viewers’ interest off the bandwagon.
The only thing that kept me going was that it had a good looking lead actor, Tomohisa Yamashita (which I heard had legion of female fans swooning at his every on screen appearance), a nice moody soundtracks and all the 'teasing' that the revelation will be equally as impressive as the complicated plot had been building up. There are also some interesting presentations of corporate frauds that makes one wonder if this questionable tactics could work in the real world.
But ultimately, it turned out to be one of those simple stories that had been overly complicated for it’s own good. In fact, the revelation of the climax felt as though the villains had been stupefied and behaved out of characters so that the movie could end. The unimpressive ending would make one wonder why did the film make the viewer go through so much for so little at the end.
It also made one wonder why were so many characters introduced but basically not utilized to drive the main story. It turned out that this movie was based on a manga/tv series and the underused characters had a bigger role in the previous incarnation. Which beg the question why didn’t the film maker trim the fats of this movie for a more impactful story telling?
The Black Swindler is like a board game of Othello. It might seems like the black had cover the board and just before the game ends, the majority of the board could turn white due to the black player’s failure to come out with the right equation for the game.
Simply a wasted effort with the material at hand.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Comes with a trailer
AUDIO/VISUAL:
No flashing of Scorpio East Logo was detected. The picture is sharp even during the darker scenes of this movie. Audio was clear and had some fine use of the bass during the thunderstorm scenes.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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