Five episodes in, I’m still not totally sure whether what Great Pretender is doing in its final arc is working or not. Without any question it’s expanded in narrative scale in a big way, which is perfectly natural for a series such as this one in the last act. And if any sort of story would suit that it would seem to be the caper flick, where “go big or go home” is more or less the raison d’être. But I can’t shake the feeling that it’s lost the personal touch to an extent. I feel a remoteness towards these events that I didn’t feel through the first three arcs.
Of course, that may be less a matter of scale than suspension of disbelief. Again, it seems odd to raise that concern about a confidence thriller, where the ridiculous is expected to regularly begat the sublime. I can’t say why “Wizard of Far East” so far seems less connected to reality than its predecessors, all of which were ludicrous enough in their own way – but it does, at least to me. It may be that this story is trying too hard to neatly tie everything and everyone together. That’s its job in the narrative structure of course, so again, it shouldn’t be an issue. But my visceral reactions are what they are.
That said, I’m certainly invested and fascinated, as much so as ever. I hadn’t planned to do double-episodes either yesterday or tonight (they’re work nights after all), but the cliffhangers have roped me in beautifully. As expected, we’re finally delving into Laurent’s story. And as expected he has a personal connection to Makoto – through Oz, to be precise. Just exactly how this ties into the present we don’t yet know, but Oz’ execution on the Suzaku yacht was all part of the scam – and I think we can assume Abby and Cynthia’s were too.
In this sort of story, where things are rarely as they seem to be, the writing has to walk a fine line so as not to make the audience feel cheated. So far Great Pretender has done that well, but I’m starting to feel a bit impatient with all the rug-pulling that’s going on. If everything is a scam, nothing ever has any consequences – so why worry about what’s happening at all? I can only assume Makoto is in the dark about what happened on the boat as he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into Akemi’s world – which makes Laurent and Oz pretty cruel fucks, if true.
As Liu reads “The Temple of the Golden Pavillion” in Shanghai (rather elegantly used to illustrate the importance of translation) and plots the final showdown with Suzaku, Oz finally decides to let Makoto in on some secrets. Makoto didn’t seem shocked to see his father alive, so again we’re left to wonder what he knows and what he doesn’t. But he certainly doesn’t know the origin story of Laurent’s gang, which Oz finally lays out for him (and us). It takes us to Belgium – Laurent isn’t French after all – where he’s a cheeky bookworm whose dyslexic restauranteur mother is being scammed by a disreputable German (the nature of this isn’t 100% clear to me) called Hugo. She dies while cooking Brussels Sprouts (perhaps a bit too on the nose there) and sets Laurent down a dark path in life.
Laurent – now a low-level professional poker player – is saved from becoming a murderer by Dorothy (Komatsu Yuka), a chatterbox confidence trickster who incorporates Laurent’s attack in her scamming of Hugo. This original core group includes Shi Won and of course Oz, who’s the idea man in the group. Things progress in natural enough fashion and Laurent eventually falls for Dorothy, who initially professes to want no part of a serious relationship. The “lone wolf” mantra is the party line, even now, but Laurent is a persuasive guy. Persuasive enough, in fact, to convince Dorothy to retire and live off her years of big takes.
This is all fine and good though I confess Dorothy, with her nonstop blathering and her rather exaggerated character design, isn’t my favorite member of the cast. But I mostly found myself wanting this flashback to play itself out more quickly rather than really savoring it, because it’s less engaging than what’s going on in the present. We may not know exactly what happens but it’s not hard to figure out that something goes wrong on the last big job Dorothy insists on, setting off a chain of events that leads us to Tokyo in 2020 at Makoto’s apartment. I’d just like to get back to that apartment sooner rather than later.
Bel
September 29, 2020 at 2:59 amJust so you know, (deleted)
Dorothy is quite a lot to take, I agree. She’s too much of a manic pixie dream girl. (Of course, that could be just a facade.)
Having finished the whole show (and without spoiling anything plot-wise), I’d say that Great Pretender manages to surprise me multiple times. As a show about extravagrant cons and con artists, it’s pretty successful in that regard. And I feel invested and interested enough to let the show fool me. YMMV. I really feel for Makoto in this arc. He has it rough, no doubt about that. The more I think about it afterwards, the more terrible his father seems to me.
Guardian Enzo
September 29, 2020 at 6:33 amFirst part was a spoiler.
Bel
September 30, 2020 at 9:18 pmSorry about that. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on.
Guardian Enzo
September 30, 2020 at 9:35 pmFeel free to comment at length, those are very welcome – just no details about stuff that hasn’t happened on-screen yet. I’d much rather be surprised.
Panino Manino
September 29, 2020 at 11:58 pmSurprises withholding information just to “surprise” you latter revealing what they omitted just to create a surprise.
Red
September 29, 2020 at 10:37 amHear, hear, I’m sorry for Laurent, but his backstory would have been better with just a less bit of Dorothy, but as such his flashback is my least liked so far among the story arcs. A cameo here and there in the first 3 arcs might have made her presence more tolerable.
As for the disconnect, there’s also this less authentic feeling in some aspects. The Shanghai and Tokyo organizations don’t seem as menacing to me compared to similar groups in anime, they seem less pronounced here than in the other arcs.
owler
October 2, 2020 at 10:49 amFor me, I think most of the disconnect is because of the nature of this con. Laurent and co. are participating in the buying and selling of people with really less emotional investment as they did for selling paintings. And they’re *still* using Makoto as a pawn. They pull the lone wolf thing, but he’s not really a willing participant. They’ve manipulated him into a situation where the danger is real this time, not just a “if we get caught, we all do time” danger.
The other thing is that he gets bumped from trainee to inner circle a bit too fast. (Also, if I’m ever a mob boss doing business in a language I don’t speak, I will have multiple translators, for accuracy.)
Guardian Enzo
October 2, 2020 at 10:59 amThat’s all probably a part of it, yes. Ultimately this arc is making Laurent & Co. less sympathetic, not more – though whether that’s intentional or not it’s too early (for me) to say.
Marina
October 23, 2020 at 8:36 pmWhat really happily surprised me was how genially connected all the story arcs were!
It all made so much sense after that.
What felt like a really compelling (tho exaggerated) con story at the begging, became more or less magical realism ( my point of view) so at the end, the story itself didn’t really felt that real, (certainly wasn’t as much Ocean eleven as many are saying. )
Look at the backgrounds, the smoothness of all cons- it certainly feels more magical than typical Heist movies. And the backgrounds, goofy jazz music playing all along- it’s clues. So you don’t really expect it to be realistic.
(Spoiler)
at the final part,(removed)
Guardian Enzo
October 23, 2020 at 8:59 pmThanks for the comment. I did edit out the last part because of spoilers though – since you can’t tag them I avoid them in the comments unless it’s a series that’s fully aired outside Japan.