Making its international premiere tonight at the Japan society in NY is a film by writer/director Natsuki Seta entitled A Liar and a Broken Girl.
The film is about a pretty high school girl named Ma-chan (Aya Omasa) who has kidnapped two children and attempts to live vicariously through them. One day, a hooded teen stalks her throughout the day and follows her into her home, eventually it is revealed that he is an old friend from her childhood named Mi-kun (Shota Somentani). He is supposedly a serial killer that goes around stabbing young women who happen to be alone at the time. The two teens had gone through a traumatic event when they were younger and are now reunited and living together. After being absent for so long, Mi-Kun is back to protect the girl whom he once protected as a child and to make sure nothing happens to her in the future, even though she has two kidnapped kids living in her apartment and acts less mature than they do.
I found this poppy and sadistic teen love story to be a very odd piece of cinema, partly because I found it confusing and partly because of how deceptive it was trying to be. From the title you can deduce that Ma-chan is the broken girl, she can’t sleep without a light on, and Mi-kun is the liar. You know he is a compulsive liar because throughout the film when he lies to someone he immediately turns to the camera afterwards and says “that was a lie.” It was an odd technique but at least it brought some clarity to the film. Another technique that I found interesting was that the word “love” was never actually spoken. When somebody would ask Mi-kun about his interest in Ma-chan the subtitles would say something and then ellipses would be placed where you think the word love would appear (although it’s possible it isn’t even love he has for her).
Besides being puzzled throughout the entire film, I did find this piece of Japanese cinema to be rather unique as it was able to tell a story in a very roundabout kind of way. You are only given pieces of information when it is absolutely required and then learn more as Mi-kun talks to his doctor or a nosy cop about how he should handle certain situations. You also never see anyone actually commit a murder, the closes thing you get is about 49 minutes into the 
film when you see the murderer find a target, drag her off, and then cut to the dead body. Nothing is revealed on screen and there really isn’t any blood in the film until you get closer to the end of the second act where you find out exactly how Ma-chan became who she is now.
A Liar and a Broken Girl is a film that I haven’t decided if I like or hate yet. I need a second viewing because I can’t seem to get my head around the whole idea of the film and how it has been presented to me. It showcases some very good acting by its young leads, has some strange musical moments and an out of place suicidal fantasy bit, all of which surround a teenage love story created by a very traumatic episode that occurred when the leads were children.
Rating: A very peculiar Japanese love story that’s uniquely twisted, oddly cute and a bit confusing. (6/10)
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