Film Review- Death Note Live-Action
Rating: 
On May 20th and 21st, Cinemark did America a favor and performed a two-night showing of the first live-action Death Note movie. The 2006 film has been floating around in bootleg, Hong Kong (and now official) releases, but this was the first and only time it was shown in an American theater.
I probably don’t need to explain the plot of Death Note, since everyone in the Japanese and English-speaking worlds seems to not only know about it, but also reads it, draws fanart, and writes naughty fanfiction for it. But just in case you’ve been living in a submarine, here’s a quick overview.
Light Yagami is a golden boy: smart, handsome, personable, and an all-around good guy. He’s a high school student with no doubt he’ll get into college and change the world. But the chance to change things comes a little earlier than he expected when he comes across a strange notebook marked “Death Note”, with a list of odd rules for the notebook’s use inside. It seems Light has stumbled upon the Death Note of a real live shinigami, or death god, and he now has the power to kill anyone he likes simply by writing their name in the book.
He takes to the job right away, using the notes of his police chief father to find the names of criminals who the justice system can’t hold for various reasons, and finishing them off. Things become slightly more complicated when the Death Note’s owner, the shinigami Ryuk, shows up, but he’s not out to retrieve his property; he’s curious to see what Light will do with the Death Note and doesn’t intend to interfere. Light is free to continue his crusade against the bad guys, all the while pretending to be the same great kid with his family and friends.
But of course the cops start noticing when dead criminals turn up everywhere, and Light’s dad is assigned to head a task force to apprehend ‘Kira’, the name Light has given himself. This is great for Light, since he can glean information from his father and follow the investigation. But when some FBI agents get too close, Light goes from justice-seeking vigilante to cold-blooded killer with surprising ease. When the task force brings in the mysterious, famous detective “L” (a teenager with Asberger’s-like behaviors), things become really intense as the two boys go head-to-head in an elaborate cat-and-mouse game.
Death Note’s major strength is its plot; the story doesn’t rely on action, but on the intellectual struggle between two brilliant young men on opposite sides of the law. The twists and turns are complex without being obscure or difficult to understand. If the characters are a bit one-sided, Tsugumi Ohba (the author) can be forgiven due to his moments of impressive cleverness, which are preserved and well-played in the movie. Thus Death Note appeals to a wide audience, as evidenced by the crowd at the showing I attended- there were plenty of adults as well as teenagers and pre-teens.
The screenwriters have streamlined things a bit to make the manga’s plot more amenable to a two-hour film. In the course of the manga, Light graduates high school and enters college; in the movie he starts out as a law student disillusioned by the loopholes in the Japanese legal system. The movie also gives him a girlfriend, who becomes a victim of Light’s obsessive self-righteousness but also provides him a chance to join his father’s task force. Despite these changes, even hardcore Death Note fans have little to complain about; the differences have no major effect on the story except to speed things up a bit. The only jarring moments in the film are when Light changes from earnest world-savior to stone-cold killer; it happens a little too quickly to be believable, but this is easily overlooked.
The film ends a little less than halfway through the manga, when Light joins the task force. This gives fans only a brief glimpse of an important (and popular) character- Misa, the teen idol who is obsessed with Kira and has a Death Note of her own. It seems viewers will have to wait for the release of the second film to see more of Misa and her patron shinigami Rem.
The movie preserves Ohba’s weird, dark sense of humor, particularly in L’s numerous quirks (a voracious sweet tooth, for instance, and an inability to sit up straight). Ryuk also provides laughs as he watches Light’s action with often-baffled amusement. As for Ryuk himself, he’s proof of the huge strides CGI technology has made in the past few years. He’s identical to the manga’s design, yet looks incredibly real, even down to the shadow he casts.
The actors do a solid job representing the characters; Kenichi Matsuyama as L shambles to perfection, like the missing link between human and ape. Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light has an Asian mullet for some reason, but his smirky smile is irresistible. And who’s that playing Light’s dad? Why, none other than Takeshi Kaga, also known as Chariman Kaga from Iron Chef (hence the picture I included with the review). He does an excellent job of looking stressed-out and unhappy (though I rather miss the gloves and frilly sleeves).
The theatrical release of Death Note is English-dubbed, and a high-quality dub at that, but unfortunately Viz chose to be sloppy with the release of what is sure to be an insanely popular movie. Viz neglected to subtitle text, so the various (and numerous) newspaper headlines, suicide notes and names written in the Death Note are indecipherable to English-speaking audiences. Hopefully the DVD is more thoughtfully made.
For a live-action film based on a manga, Death Note is at the top of the heap. Longtime fans and newbies should be equally impressed with it, and with the fact that it earned any sort of theatrical release (even if it was only two nights in select theaters). Oh, and to the teenage girls sitting in front of us? Screaming “Yaoi!” when Light and L meet in the film isn’t going to make it happen. Go back to Deviant Art and draw your own dirty pictures.
Details
Studio: Death Note Partners
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Stars: 4
Running Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: N/A
Release Date: 2006
Links
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758742/
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