Brief Story Line
After continuously making troubles at various schools with her gambling addiction, Yumeko (Miku Martineau - Kate, Star Trek: Section 31 etc) got transferred to St. Dominic's private school which was having a hierarchy system based on gambling winnings. It was run by the student council president Kira (Clara Alexandrova - Danger in the Dorm etc) along with her group that consisted of her sister Riri (Anwen O'Driscoll - Burden of Truth TV series etc), social media queen Suki (Ryan Sutherland), the psychotic Dori (Aviva Mongillo - Backstage TV series etc) and Mary (Eve Edwards).
It did not take long for Yumeko to immediately disrupt the hierarchy by challenging Kira's group, starting with Mary. Despite strong warning from another student Michael (Hunter Cardinal) who never gambled, Yumeko still insisted on going against the councils. She also got to know and became close with Ryan (Ayo Solanke) who was bottom of the chart and was one of those referred to as "house pet".
So what would happen to Yumeko? And why did she insist on climbing up the chart by challenging the student councils? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I have watched the Japanese anime series and also live version adaptation of Kakegurui (literal translation: compulsive gambler) by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura in Netflix some time back. I thought it was pretty interesting with its rather unique games being played combined with teen drama. However I honestly did not think it was so popular that convinced the producers to make a Western adaptation. Regardless though I thought I better give it a try and see if it's still interesting.
In the early part of the first episode, I had to get myself accustomed with the change of cultures. Half way through the episode, I could see that the lead character Yumeko was a little bit similar to the one I saw in the original series with her seemingly crazy addiction for gambling. But the rest of the people were written more like Westerner which I believed was to make international audience more relatable. This decision understandably sparked controversies to the fans of the original work but I personally felt not all were bad, though few were not so good either. Unfortunately I think most were not appreciative of these changes, and those who are not accustomed with Japanese style of films/series would feel weird looking at Yumeko's behavior.
Once I reached the end of that episode, I could immediately foresee that the plot would be totally different from the manga. The major plot change was giving Yumeko a deeper and darker reason for her actions and in this regard I have no complaints cause I thought it made the story more interesting than the rather simplistic original story. Another change in the series were the games. Some of them were also altered likely to give stronger appeal to global teens audience, such as the dance competition (though personally to me it was rather forced) or the fighting for the flags.
The series itself was developed by Simon Barry the person behind hits like Warrior Nun, Van Helsing and few others. So it's actually in safe hands. But having cliffhanger ending of the first season was making me nervous. Based on past experiences watching Netflix series, I have doubts that this would be renewed since it did not seem like a truly big hit in its first few days of release. Of all the 10 episodes with roughly 30-35 minutes duration, my favorites were episode 8 due to its intensity and finale with its surprising twist. I also liked the songs in here with several famous ones that were dubbed in Japanese. The cast in general were unfamiliar to me except Miku Martineau and guest star Peter Outerbridge (Nikita TV series, Saw VI etc). There were other guest stars too with one notable person WWE wrestler Colby Lopez aka Seth Rollins.
Overall, this might not be the best Western adaptation of manga/anime series due to its various alterations to the characters and the games which was supposed to be the main attraction. However the change in main plot was something that I thought was interesting and made the series more exciting. I also thought the lead cast Miku and Clara were OK while few of the newcomers like Ayo Solanke, Eve Edwards and Hunter Cardinal were not bad considering they did seem to have prior acting experience. The short duration was nice as it did not take long to finish the whole season, but the cliffhanger ending was a downside, especially if it is not renewed by Netflix. So if you are interested in watching a really full adaptation of the popular manga, better watch the Japanese anime or its live version series (all available in Netflix). But if you do not mind multiple creative changes, then you might still be able to enjoy this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment