Hideki Naoi & SHADOW -- Liar ~ Koi no Petenshi（ライアー（恋のペテン師））

 

One of the funniest movies that I have ever seen was "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" from 1988. Starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine as two very different con artists trying to beat each other, I loved it for the hilarious situations, such as the one above, and the setting of the genuine French Riviera commune of Beaumont-sur-Mer. I remember with great fondness how the movie audience was just splitting their collective sides laughing and to be honest, I don't think that I've seen a comedy on the big screen since then that had me laughing that much.

According to J-Wiki, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" was released the following year in Japan with the fairly unwieldy title of "Petenshi to Sagishi ~ Damasarete Riviera"（ペテン師とサギ師/だまされてリビエラ...The Fraudster and the Swindler/Cheat Me, Riviera）. The term sagishi（詐欺師）, meaning fraudster, is something that I hear all too often since Japan also has too many con men trying to pull off grandparent scams and the like. However petenshi（ペテン師）is rather new for me, but it basically translates as swindler, so it's pretty much the same as sagishi.

Finally, getting to the song of this article then, we have "Liar ~ Koi no Petenshi" (Swindler of Love) by Hideki Naoi（直井秀樹）& SHADOW. Now, Naoi has been mentioned once before a couple of months ago for his catchy 1983 "Omae wa Inryoku"（おまえは引力）which became a campaign song for the Toyota Corona at the time. I stated there that this was Naoi's only single in all likelihood, but I guess that it was his only single as a solo artist since "Liar ~ Koi no Petenshi" is the B-side for the single "Akai Yoru"（赤い夜...Red Night） with Naoi as a leader of the band.

Written by Naoi, composed by Hiro Nagasawa（長沢ヒロ）and arranged by Osamu Totsuka（戸塚修）, "Liar" is a swiftly flowing disco-inflected City Pop tune from 1981 which also possesses some of that bouncy guitar funk. If there were a movie to surround this song, I probably wouldn't imagine "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" but something more down-to-earth such as a cop-and-swindler thriller in the heart of Tokyo. At the same time, seeing the singer on the cover of the single doesn't make me think of him as a swindler or even a liar but more of an odious mechanic on a break.

In any case, I would love to hear "Akai Yoru" if it ever gets up onto YouTube.