So, I watched Death Note night before last (after constant egging by Abel and recommendation by Yung Hui). And my brief review says this: Watch it. Asides from the crappy translations in the subtitles (if you’re Malaysian, but not all my readers are Malaysian, lol), Death Note is a decent movie to watch. If you like battle-of-the-wits kind of movies, then this is one show to watch.
Right. Now, ahead to the spoilery reviews.
Story
Death Note begins very simply. A Notebook dropped on the streets in rainy Tokyo. The area surrounding the notebook is an oasis of dry amidst the rainwater-splashed streets. Then the scene shifts to someone writing in the notebook, followed by criminals dying, one by one, all by sudden heart attacks. (That is myocardium infarction for you med students who keep harping on me that heart attacks are not the correct words to use).
The audience is then introduced to the phenomenon as Kira (Japanese bastardization of the word Killer), being a Divine-Justice-At-Work. Many people worshipped Kira for serving justice rightousely, while some others think that Kira is just a mass murderer.
Then we are introduced to the person who is Kira. He is Light (Raito, which means moon in Japanese) Yagami. It is shown that he posseses a note book called the Death Note, and whosoever has their name written down in it will die. Then throughout the movie, the various rules of the Death Note is introduced, such as the owner of the Death Note is able to control the time and circumstances of a person’s death and et cetera.
The police, sharing a viewpoint that Kira is no less different from the murderers that he killed, has decided to start an investigation against the Kira phenomena (lead by none other than Light’s father). But soon, the police got to a dead end. There, they were intoduced to an enigmatic investigator, who has investigated further than they ever could (using rather ingenious statistical models… watch more Numb3rs on TV, and you can roughly guess what L is up to).
Hence a battle of wits occured between L and Light, with Light trying to outwit L who is hot upon his heels. Needless to say, if you can predict the story before hand, you either are twisted, or you’ve read the manga.
Somewhere along the line, Ryuk, the God of Death was revealed to have dropped the Death Note on purpose, and other minor characters like Misa which will be further expanded upon in the second movie appears.
The ending is definitely interesting. That’s all I will tell you.
Characters
Light Yagami (left) and L (right)
Light Yagami starts out as this justice serving hero, who deals relentless justice upon the criminals of the world. But somewhere along the movie, he subtly loses it. As said by L when he psychoanalyzed Kira: “He is someone who doesn’t like to lose”. Soon, he starts to kill other people without regard, just to win the battle of wits against L. He is played by Tatsuya Fujiwara.
L is portrayed in the beginning as an enigmatic character, leading the Police Investigation Team everywhere, and his methods are often extreme. He is seen as an equal in intellect and cunning to Light. When he is first revealed to the Investigative Team, he’s none other than a gangly teenager with a huge sweet tooth. “Hajimemashite, L desu” (Good to meet you, I’m L) was what he said when he first met the Investigative Team in person. It just drips with cool. He is played by Ken’ichi Matsuyama, who tackles the role very well.
Ryuk is the God of Death who dropped the Death Note. Originally in the movie, he is portrayed as an instigator of sorts, but as the movie proceeds, he slowly becomes the voice of conscience for Light. Do watch his love for apples. It’s sorta cute. Ryuk himself is a 3D Computer Generated character, though not very realistic, it’s still watchable.
The other characters are generally rather muted and one-dimensional. Most serve as a toy for either Light or L to manipulate. Characters to note are Naomi, and Shori.
Misa’s character is seemingly pointless in this movie, but it will contine to be expanded upon in the second movie, where she is shown to use a Death Note too.
Acting
Ken’ichi Matsuyama who plays L takes his role very well. He plays this sweet-toothed teenage investigator genius, who has odd habits (like using his lolipop to stir his tea). Other characters too, like Light, though not as sophisticated as the manga version, is still a formidable foe, someone intelligent to be viewed as a threat, and yet he is also seen as this justice seeking vigilante. Even 3D characters like Ryuk, are played well. And Misa is just cute.
Other characters are just too one dimensional in this movie, and you can’t really flesh out a 1-D char
Miscellenous
- The pacing of the movie is not as intense as I might have expected, but it is not too slow.
- The battle of the wits between Light and L are also not as intense (but still intense enough for a movie in the cinema) as the manga, where Light is shown to be even more manipulative.
- Music is well.. nowhere near a John Williams or Danny Elfman production, but still decent. I wouldn’t rush to buy the OST though.
- Interestingly, the kanji (chinese words) for Yagami is God of the Night.
- It follows the manga quite closely, I must say
Conclusion
In Ending, I think this movie is a must-watch, and I think it’s a very fresh thing to hit the movie market, other than the usual Hollywood crap. I’d rate it a 7.5/10. Watch it!
As for me, I’m waiting for Part II - Death Note: The Last Name. And pray that Hollywood doesn’t come up with a remake of Death Note.
Cool?
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Hm… I’ll have to wait quite a while to see it.
i have to say this is quite a good review. Keep it up!
i’m from malaysia.. i just download the movie but i didnt have the subtitle.. can anyone rip for me a subtitle.. i dont realy care if it is in malay or english crappy or not… please email me at de_crawler@hotmail.com
Shame on you oneijat. Shame on you. Go to TGV and watch it for goodness sake
I agree, it’s a good movie.Basically I agree with everything that written here.
I give it 7.75/10, something is missing, but I couldn’t tell what is it. The cg part should be improve too.
Nevertheless, it made me laugh hard.
p/s: This movie makes people wanted to be more intelligent!! Arggg… I wish my IQ was 50 points higher
50 points higher, and my IQ’d be at 220
MUAHAHAHAHAH… yea.. I wish mine were 50 points higher too
Popular series from Japan tend to spawn porn that caters to the fans of that particular series. Doujins are a common thing, but what about an AV? With titles like ‘Final F*** X’ and ‘Faith Stay Knight’ already out, I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Deaf Node’ is the next low-budget AV title in the works.
is it still showin in msia? i dun think it’d hit aussie cinemas
It’s basically a good movie. I didn’t read the manga much, but I think it’s great. I loves Ken’ichi Matsuyama’s acting.. XD I loves L and I loves the way he make me loves L even more. (With the thumb-bitting and stuff.. hehe)
watched in cinema. downloaded the anime. downloaded the movie. i watch with VLC player. just to preference and click on audio-subs. browse the srt.file and u can view the subs then. enjoy.
i find that the anime is much better than the movie..well, it always does in any other adaptation. Spore will be showing the part 2 soon. damn. someone pls upload it soon!!!!
[...] And as for Faith Stay Knight - that was a user contributed content - Hangmen had commented in my Death Note Review, using those words. [...]
L did you know that kira was right
L did you know that kira was right that human will do it again and again…
anime series are efinitely better… at least, they ends like manga, not like this improper film
^^ I’ve watched the 1st and 2nd movie. Love it ^^… Ryuk is surprisingly cute. ^^
please give me more photo’s about Death Note, specialy Ryuzaki a.k.a L…
thank you very much before…
I’ve watched part 1 & 2 , and it’s really great,,, I haven’t read the manga, and haven’t seen the anime version , yet the movie adaptation was fantastic
Kenichi-san did a great (and a cute one!) job as L, and even Tatsuya-san as Light… The film’s ending compared to the animated one (I’ve read the “summary”), I think, for me, is much better. There’s a great twist in the story. .. And yeah, I also wish Hollywood won’t come up with a remake of that like what they did on the Ring and The Grudge.. sheesh
can i ask whats d real name of L???
light u r so freaking hot!NARIKO AI LIGHT
tHe mOvie wAs so gOod…!lEts jusT hoPe that hOllywoOd woN’t remake the movie…!ggrrrrRRrrRRrr
i am from philippines….i’ve seen death note,,,it was really an awesome film…Light is gr8 actor n so was L…well done! 2 thumbs up 4 u guys…
We have seen half of the first one,, and have fallen in love with it!!! We can’t wait to see the rest of the first one and all of the second one!
wao i’m veri like death note.
i hope i have it for kill my anemy.
(just kidding)
hahahah
i love L so i didn’t want L was died in movie 3. and what the real name of kira. . .i so confused. . .
xixixi
The real name of kira is light, the real name of ryuzaki/L is L Lawliet 3>
Mine,mine,mine <3<3<3 =,”3
I have not seen the film, but read the manga comics, they are really amazing!