2010 08 18 - SFS - LIAR GAME / THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Marina 1 - LIAR GAME (PG/137 minutes)

Nao Kanzaki (Erika Toda) is a young simple college student who finds herself unwittingly involved in a mysterious competition called the Liar Game Tournament (LGT). In this competition, participants try to cheat one another of a large sum of money (loaned to them from the tournament organizers). To win - one must employ every possible trick and device to lie, cheat, swindle and con. Winners take home an obscene amount of money, while the losers incur an insurmountable mountain of debt. Nao seemingly has no chance of survival in this microcosm of greed and deceit. Fortunately, she manages to enlist the help of master con man, Shinichi Akiyama (Shota Matsuda), whose razor-sharp mind and genius with manipulation helps her survive an onslaught of ruthless challenges.

LIAR GAME: THE FINAL STAGE presents the ultimate challenge for young Nao and Akiyama - a final showdown based on a new game of deception inspired from the story of the 'Garden of Eden.' God created the 'Garden of Eden,' an earthly paradise where he sent to live one male and female, Adam and Eve. In the end, Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation by eating the forbidden fruit, causing them to be banished from the garden forever.

The concept of the game is based on this idea of temptation and pits the top players of the LGT against each other. The twist, is that to win, the players must ironically not seek to deceive one another but endeavor to trust and cooperate. If they can do that, everyone is guaranteed to emerge as victors. Yet, maintaining mutual trust in this battle of wits is no mean feat. Upping the ante, hiding among the finalists is a certain 'Player X,' planted by the tournament organizers to cause disarray and serve as the ultimate 'trust assassin.'

Marina 2 - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (R21 - Sexual Violence/152 minutes)

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.

When the pair link Harriets disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger's are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.