The Black Swindler
Yasuharu Ishii

Pop and drama idol Tomohisa Yamashita reprises the role he played in the TV-series adaptation of the best-selling manga Kurosagi, which looks at the world of swindlers.
White swindlers (shirosagi) scam victims for their money while red swindlers (akasagi) steal your heart. Kurosaki (Yamashita) is a black swindler, or kurosagi, who preys on other swindlers.
He does this because his family was wiped out by cheats in a plot masterminded by Katsuragi (Tsutomu Yamazaki), whom he now depends upon for information about other swindlers.
Needless to say, theirs is a complicated relationship.
Yamashita's blank-faced pretty-boy looks are put to good use since he has to adopt various identities as a con artist, but the set-up for the final scam takes way too long and lacks the wow factor, after films such as Hollywood's Ocean's Eleven series.
The cast of characters is also not drawn well and some of the relationships between the characters are not clearly delineated.
Also, repeatedly pinning the blame for Japan's long-lingering economic malaise on bankruptcy fraud perpetrated by swindlers is just too far-fetched and jarring.
You begin to wonder what scam the film-makers are pulling.
(ST)