Review of MISS KING (2025)

Limited series

Score: 6/10

MISS KING stars Non as Asuka, a young lady struggling to find her way alone in the world, who has carried with her since childhood an extraordinary talent for shogi. Shogi, like western chess, is a descendant of the Indian game chaturanga. Shogi shares many traits with chess but is more complicated. Pieces can be promoted to higher rank when reaching deep into enemy territory and pieces taken from the board can be returned to it by the capturer; this mimics the reality of turncoat mercenaries. Netflix’s popular 2020 film QUEEN’s GAMBIT starring Anya Taylor-Joy may have breathed new life into the chess story. Netflix returns to that well with MISS KING. The actress, singer, and model Non has been working in Japanese cinema and television since 2010 when she was known as Nonen Rena and starred in the NHK annual morning drama AMACHAN. No stranger to adversity herself, her stage name arose from a conflict with her former talent agency that claims to own the rights (!) to her birth name. It has been reported that in the wake of that conflict, she lost many roles. 2025 is the year of her comeback (Nonaisance?) She recently co-starred in the riveting BULLET TRAIN EXPLOSION for Netflix. As Asuka, she brings the same aura of intelligence and intensity that she did for that desperate shinkansen driver. Non’s acting style and feline grace reminds me of Yoshizawa Ryo (the KINGDOM series, REACH BEYOND THE BLUE SKY, KOKUHO).

Asuka’s nemesis in shogi and in life is the father who abandoned her and her mother. Nakamura Shido II plays Yuuki Shoichi who has ascended the mountain of competitive shogi as the reigning kishi. His path has brought him fame and wealth and a replacement family. Nakamura, a kabuki actor and frequent character actor of film and television, is always effective as villains and schemers. He was great as the shogun’s spymaster in the THIRTEEN LORDS OF THE SHOGUN, great as a disgraced and drunken samurai in YAE NO SAKURA, and an effective menacing presence in LUMBERJACK THE MONSTER. He seems typecast here as the unfeeling dad who disappoints, but the minimalist contours of his performance are perfect. Nakamura can communicate volumes with a glance.

In the first few episodes, we travel a crazy quilt of mismatched tones, ranging from light physical comedy and antics to loss, overwhelming grief, and brushes with suicide and homicide. Later episodes smooth out the wrinkles and the series just about sticks the landing.

A chess story is comparable to a sports story: the underdog advances against impossible odds from match to match and ultimately triumphs over their opponents, and their own fears, demons, or baggage. Sports films are a staple of American cinema, invariably mixing tough-minded competitiveness with feel good camaraderie between teammates or between coach and athlete. Eventually all the stories come back to family values and fairplay. There is an expression in English: “For love of the game.” In contrast, MISS KING depicts the elite echelons of shogi as populated by obsessives. Those obsessions are channeled into a vengeance story more comparable to 47 Ronin than FIELD OF DREAMS or A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN.

Western sports films have showcased some great coaches, like Burgess Meredith in ROCKY, Ian Holm in CHARIOTS OF FIRE, Mickey Rooney in THE BLACK STALLION, Pat Morita in THE KARATE KID, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman in MILLION DOLLAR BABY, and Paul Giamatti in CINDERELLA MAN. Quite unlike all of those mentors, Fujiki Naohito takes the role of Seigo, coach to Asuka’s shogi as well as her emotional challenges. He seems particularly unsuited for the latter job. Here we are presented with coach and apprentice as mirror images. Both resent Yuuki. Both lost a parent before a disastrous match. Both lack the skills to communicate their emotions effectively.

The problem with MISS KING is not so much the plot, which is intriguing enough, nor the acting, but the tone deaf script with its simplistic dialog. Characters speak more like samurai of yore than multidimensional citizens of modernity. The manner in which one family has taken over the various shogi associations and rule them with an iron fist makes MISS KING resemble a yakuza story. I suspect the real world of shogi is a much more upbeat club to join.

REEL JAPAN

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