Netflix’s Run for the Money is the best thing I’ve seen all year

I’m wasting no time here: go watch the newly released competition/survival/game show on Netflix called Run for the Money: Battle Royale.

It’s got style (men in black chasing down its contestants in a kooky but serious game of tag), substance (literal character arcs for celebrities who are relatable, heartfelt or so awful that you will love to hate them) and a sense of pacing that never lets up in its entertainment value with everything it keeps dishing out. Here’s hoping that this show blows up and is here to stay because it is, quite simply, that amazing.

Run for the Money: Battle Royale is my new favourite thing

Originally created, released and broadcasted in 2004 through Fuji TV, Run for the Money is a reality competition show that has long been popular in Japan for setting the standard for survival game shows. It spawned a short-lived spin off in the US in 2008 simply titled Chase, and has won numerous awards, including the Best Game or Quiz Programme at the Asian Television Awards in 2009.

Now returning for an international audience as Run for the Money: Battle Royale via Netflix, it is about to get even more notorious. The show brings together up-and-coming talents and pre-existing fan favourites from numerous different entertainment outlets. Sometimes they’ll have to work as a team, at others they’ll have to fight it out for the biggest cash prize the series has ever seen. Run for the Money is one of the most blood-pumping, emotionally stirring and intense competitive TV shows I’ve ever seen.

The premise is a simple one. For precisely 200 minutes, 29 celebrities must not get caught by Hunters. It’s a serious game of tag, in other words, since players will have to either keep out of sight from the very well-dressed Hunters or manage to outmanoeuvre and outrun them around corners and blind spots. If caught, they are sent to “jail” and are eliminated from the game with no money pocketed. Across 4 episodes ranging from 49-61 minutes each, everything is set within the confines of Huis ten Bosch.

That is the general gist of it for the most part, but to keep the “fugitives” on their toes, missions are also a defining element of the show. The exact nature of the missions always varies, but they tend to be based around preventing more Hunters from joining the game or increasing the cash prize. Occasionally, some are designed to throw a wrench in player’s tactics, such as needing to locate tickets from guests coming into the area, with only a few actually carrying one. The ticket gives one fugitive access to a safe zone they must reach before the timeframe expires, or a hundred new Hunters will be released and target the stragglers.

With every second that goes by, the cash prize amount increases. There is always the option to bail out via payphones; these will grant any fugitive the opportunity to surrender and pocket the amount of the cash prize accumulated at the time that they call in. To win the game outright, any remaining fugitives who last for the entire 200 minutes without getting tagged and captured win the entire jackpot. They can win up to 5.04 million yen for this season – roughly £30,000.

The 29 celebrity participants are:

• Comedic duo “Ganbareruya” (Nagata Yoshiko and Okada Mahiru)
• HKT48’s Yabuki Nako
• Singer and actor Morisaki Win
• K-pop SHINee’s Choi Min Ho
• Baseball player Mitsuma Takuya
• Figure skater Honda Marin
• Comedian Hollywood Zakoshisyoh
• Influencer Naenano
• Comedian Tsuda Atsuhiro
• YouTubers “Paparapys” (Tanakaga and Jinjin)
• Actor Seto Toshiki
• Mixed martial arts fighter and YouTuber Shibatar
• Idol and actor Sano Hayato
• Members of boy band JO1 Sato Keigo and Kinjo Sukai
• Comedian Saito Tsukasa
• Comedian Kojima Yoshio
• Comedian Komoto Junichi
• Comedic brother duo “Miki” (Miki Kousei and Asai)
• Comedian Kuro-chan
• Actress Kuroki Hikari
• Hinatazaka46’s Kanemura Miku
• Football player Okubo Yoshito
• Member of boy band Sandaime J Soul Brothers’ ELLY
• Actress and model Igeta Hiroe
• Idol Shimizu Ano

If anyone on the extensive list of its participants catches your eye, you will not need much more convincing to watch the show, I’m sure. If you are unfamiliar with their names but at least take their careers into account, the potential from the best performing contestants is top notch as one can expect. The more athletic individuals are, of course, the most exciting to watch for how they manage to sometimes outplay the Hunters, but everyone has something to enjoy.

In fact, your favourite contestant may very well be one of the few exceptional highlights for having their own character arc! A certain contestant always wanted to prove that they can complete at least one mission in order to be seen as a hero, or at least cool. Their journey and eventual destination was truly something for the books.

Almost every single person in the game has their own reasons in wanting to participate and win. This makes them all the more charming and charismatic in their own ways. Some are more heartfelt than others, with a good example being Takuya, who was unemployed at the time of the show’s recording. He played to take home the money to his wife and child to help them set up a strawberry farm this year.

On the flip side we have the rather silly or absentminded reasons, such as ELLY just wanting the latest vacuum cleaner, but who most certainly agreed to appear on the show to test himself since he is one of the more athletically inclined. Even its Youtuber stars of Paparapys had always wanted to be on the show just to try it out! You will certainly have contestants you will support all the way to the end.

A glass case of emotion

Run for the Money might not sound like a big deal on paper in 2022 since despite being one of the earliest shows to make use of a Battle Royale premise in Japan, other Netflix shows like The Mole and the British survival show Hunted are similar in concept — we’ve seen the idea time and time again now. But what makes Run for the Money superior is in just how far it goes with its extreme set-up, and how it makes its own take on the formula truly distinctive. It’s the best of the best.

Firstly, the game is overseen and masterminded by actor, screenwriter and director Sato Jiro. He has the duality of both Greg Davies and Alex Horne of Taskmaster, appearing serious for the most part but providing tongue in cheek antics for comedic value whenever the real-world action turns to the control room. The scenarios that have him reacting and interacting with the show’s crew members are downright hilarious.

While his acting and script makes the premise of the show feel all the more substantial, involved and well-realised (give the background information about this show a look into, it’s much deeper than one would expect!), it is the show’s narrator that makes the product as flawless as it is.

Her delivery and commitment to her role is something else. Her punctuation and tone throughout exaggerates every single point she makes. It can be as simple as explaining contestants’ moves or choices of words, but her way of speaking makes them sound that much more suspicious. She never fails to drive home the intensity of every single mission and outcome. She truly does bring so much energy and charisma to the show with her voice and input alone.

The show itself presents various physical and mental challenges. We obviously have players needing to maintain a good balance of conserving energy and remaining alert at all times while being on foot for a little over 3 hours. There are also mind games when potential traitors come into play – those who seize the opportunity to throw their fellow contestants under the bus might bag a tip for selling them out to the Hunters. There is even a standout moment of a participant using the most savage, tactical play to get their way as they quite literally sacrifice another participant for their own gain.

This brings me to my biggest compliment for the show. It is an extremely intriguing showcase of human behaviour. It’s fascinating to see who pursues the missions for the sake of helping others, while the rest coast along and stick to themselves — and some actively look for opportunities to benefit only themselves.

Most of the time many of them come together to work on the same cause since some missions require multiple fugitives to work as a team to more effectively tackle the task. Other times, the most crafty or selfish of participants are actively lying to their rivals (and sometimes even real-life friends) to create even more tension by stirring the pot. Anxiety and second-guessing are frequent among the contestants, just as they are for the audience members.

The show is all made even better with its masterful camera work and editing. Each and every frame, cut and camera position only ever adds to the tension and unpredictability of it all, especially when the Hunters start to chase someone in their line of sight, but this is not shown to audiences straight away. Instead, we are often watching more than one contestant at a time, so until we see the Hunter come into the shot we have of the contestant, we won’t realise who is truly in danger. Jump-scares can and do happen here, in fact.

Netflix finally strikes gold

Do not look any deeper into the show just yet; simply go watch it right now if it piques your interest even a little. It is absolutely best to not know the outcome of this installment to maintain the indescribable sense of dread and excitement one feels from such a chaotic and jam-packed game show.

You will get an onslaught of emotions from witnessing just how cruel humans can be when greed comes into play, or how movingly wholesome the best of humanity can be with one another. How some contestants warn others of Hunters near them and shout for them to run as they themselves are removed from the game is the definition of emotional damage.

The Hunters are the real MVPs here, though. They are suited up, fully masked and are running in formal shoes! I hope they got paid well!

I binged this show and am already rewatching it for a third time because of its quality and entertainment value. You should really just head on over to Netflix now and give it a go yourself. You can thank me later.

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