The Confidence Man JP: Princess (2020) [Film Review]

The Confidence Man JP: Princess; or, Anything Goes in Malaysia

     What you see isn’t always real. What’s real? What’s fake? Was Princess Diana’s death really an accident? Did Cinderella drop her glass slipper on purpose? Princess Kaguya demanded treasure from the rich, then vanished to the moon. Was she a scammer too? Welcome to the world of confidence men!
After checking out the first Confidence Man JP theatrical movie from 2019, I had low expectations for the sequel. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised because Princess is a brilliant and ridiculously entertaining film that does justice to the whole franchise.

Release Info

Directed by: Ryo Tanaka Starring: Masami Nagasawa, Masahiro Higashide, Fumiyo Kohinata, Shinya Kote

Language: Japanese Original Title: コンフィデンスマンJP プリンセス編 Runtime: 124 min

Synopsis
Two years after their ordeal in Hong Kong, Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro HIgashide), and Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata) join forces again in order to trick the Fu family from Langkawi, Malaysia. After the death of Richard Fu (Kinya Kitaoji), the head of the family, his three spoiled children are left out of the will because everything is to be inherited by a certain Michelle Fu, an illegitimate daughter who is missing. The team takes advantage of this situation by introducing their own “Michelle Fu” played by Kokkuri (Nagisa Sekimizu), a daughter of Dako’s old friend.

Slipping Through My Fingers
Evidently, director Ryo Tanaka and Ryota Kosawa have learned their lesson from the first film and turned Princess into a truly cinematic experience. This motion picture is funny, exciting, suspenseful, and, above all, touching. However, in order to fully enjoy it, you need to at least check out the first episode of the drama, SP feature, and the first movie. In the universe of The Confidence Man JP, everything is interconnected and thus many familiar faces make brief appearances as well as contribute to the storyline with their own mini-subplots.

Nevertheless, returning characters are not the core of this picture. The Confidence Man JP: Princess feels with its light-hearted style, exotic locations, vibrant costumes, and lavish production design like Mamma Mia! (2008), but without ABBA songs. Instead, we get the usual magic from our favourite hustlers, sprinkled with a heart-warming message about believing in oneself and never giving up.

In terms of performances, the entirety of the main cast gave their very best. Apart from brilliant performances of Masami Nagasawa, Masahiro Higaside, and Fumiyo Kohinata, I particularly liked the return of Haruma Miura and Yuko Takeuchi. May their souls rest in peace. Nagisa Sekimizu also had wonderful onscreen chemistry with Masami (their scenes are the best!). In addition, Vivian Hsu and Kyohei Shibata were absolutely amazing in supporting roles. Especially Shibata as the family’s caretaker won me over. This guy would make an amazing Alfred in a Batman movie.

What is more, keep an eye out on small but extremely hilarious appearances of Mari Hamada, Kenichi Takito, Kinya Kitaoji, Dewi Soekarno, and GACKT! I also think it’s also not much of a spoiler to say that Yosuke Eguchi reprises his role as Akaboshi. At first, I thought the subplot with Akaboshi is just flogging a dead horse at this point in the franchise, but his short confrontation with the confidence team actually works very well in Princess.

Last but not least, I have to praise the effort of the cast in terms of handling multilingual dialogue. It is great fun to hear Masami, Masahiro, and Fumiyo communicating in Japanese, English, and Malay. Also, Vivian Hsu handled her English dialogue like a boss.

Recommendations
All things considered, The Confidence Man JP: Princess delivers on all fronts. It is everything I wanted it to be and so much more! FujiTV advertised the film as the final entry in the series, but I need at least six more movies! I strongly hope that they will get round to making the third part sometime soon. In my book, Princess is easily one of the best productions of 2020.Overall score: 9/10

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