Death Note Real Life Movie Part 1 Review

After months of waiting, I finally got the opportunity to watch Death Note in our local cinema! Well, the movie was only supposed to be screened from 19 Oct but there are sneak previews this weekend thus I jumped at the chance to catch this last night. As compared to the situation for Umizaru which was shown about 2 months ago at three locations, Death Note is screened at GV cineplexes which are located strategically in the city area and heartlands so I think this will be a big boost to its takings. Besides, Death Note enjoys a very strong following among local manga fans. I noticed that there were many groups of guys coming to watch the movie together and girlfriends accompanying boyfriends who are manga fans (the guys sitting around me seemed to be occupied with explaining the story to their girlfriends ^__^ )so I assume the strong turnout is largely due to the popularity and fame of the manga itself. Last but not least, the advertisement billboards started appearing in places like MRT stations since last month so the publicity has helped to generate hype over the movie's release significantly.

Another piece of good news is that the local cinemas will be showing the second instalment i.e. "Death Note - the Last Name - " next month which I suppose should be in conjunction with its release in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong! This means that the local distributor must have deliberately delayed the release of Part 1 to Oct instead of going along with Hong Kong and Taiwan which screened the movie in about 1 month after the Japan screening in June, so as to keep the story fresh in viewers' minds and ensure that they will continue to watch the sequel. Watching Part 1 on its own only lays the foundation and background of the story and it ends with a cliffhanger. The real action i.e. the battle between Light and L will be the essence of Part 2 and I can't wait to find out if the ending will be different from the manga.

Coming to my views of the movie, I won't go into too much details of how the story progresses but do be warned that there would be plenty of spoilers in the following content as I express my thoughts about the movie especially when it comes to the comparison between the manga and movie.

First of all, the setting of the movie is significantly different from the manga especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships and backgrounds.

For example, Light was a 17-year-old senior high student in the manga but he becomes an university student reading law in the movie. I guess that's partly due to the fact that Fujiwara Tatsuya doesn't look like a senior high student now so instead of sticking blindly to the original setting and being slammed for not looking his part, it was a smart move to adjust Light's background to suit Fujiwara's physical attributes and image.

Names of characters were changed like Raye Penber became Raye Iwamatsu (I didn't see the rationale to do this though since Raye was an American after all in the manga) and some characters whom were supposed to be here ended up at another point in the story. For example, the guy named Shibuimaru Takuo was the one who got knocked down by a truck after he was chasing after a woman to harrass her but he took on the form of a child murderer in the movie and Light deliberately stood before the guy to write his name on the Death Note. Well, Light was furious about the fact that this guy was unrepentant about his misdeeds and that's why he had the strong urge to kill Shibuimaru as soon as he found out that the Death Note really had the power it claimed to have.

And the so-called key person in this movie i.e. the newly created character Akino Shiori didn't seem that important if you consider the limited airtime she gets. However, her presence is somewhat like a litmus test which gives you an idea of how Light views the people around him and how his character and morals had changed from his initial motto of changing the world for the better. It's obvious that Light doesn't love her at all which is why he could sacrifice her easily. He didn't seem that affected by her demise. To me, Light didn't have the intention of killing Shiori until the presence of Misora Naomi became a serious threat to exposing his identity. As such, he probably saw Shiori as someone whom he could use as a pawn anytime. Besides, as seen from his dialogue with Ryuk who asked what Light would do if Shiori found out that he is Kira, Light simply shrugged nonchalantly and said that Shiori will understand his intentions one day. If Shiori had meant something to him, I guess he would have given some thought about her feelings rather than expect that she accepts his new identity as a dictator of death without any reservations. As such, Shiori's importance in the story is subjective, depending on how you see it.

Something which bothers me was the fact that they used a middle-aged man to play the fake L on TV when the manga obviously used a much younger man. Again, I don't see the reason for the change but anyway, it doesn't affect the story at all. It just irks me to see changes which are not necessary.

Another thing was the inclusion of a female detective in Yagami's team. The self-introductions by them to L were conducted quickly but I remember clearly that the lady's surname was something I didn't see in the manga. Another newly created character, I guess.

Amane Misa was not as ditzy as what she is in the manga. I guess Toda Erika doesn't have much time to show off the characteristics of Misa yet so we should be seeing if she can match up to the irritating traits of the manga Misa.

Before I rave about the good points of this movie, let me point out one major disappointment and grouse I have. It's with regards to Misora Naomi. As you may have known, she is the fiancee of Raye and a former FBI inspector. In the manga, her interaction with Light was a very exciting part of the story where Light showed how clever he could get and Misora had protected herself right to the end until she revealed her name to Light as she let down her guard. Even though Misora did disappear or should I say die because of Light's manipulations, it was done in a very classy manner, absolutely no gore and leaving much to imagination. However, the movie oversimplified Misora and made her seem like a rash woman who exposed her background to Light too easily. As we find out later, Misora giving away a major piece of information about her identity proved to what killed her in the end. It was a waste to see her die in that fashion which was contrary to what she should have been. Too bad for Seto Asaka too...she could have done much better if the movie didn't design Misora to be such a brainless and reckless woman.

On the whole, I think that the story was handled pretty well especially for the following parts:

- The finale where L ate consome potato chips in front of Light at the arts museum. It was an obvious taunt at Light by L that the latter had seen through the mobile TV trick.

- Raye being ordered by Light to write down names of the FBI detectives on the Death Note. No doubt it was a little shortened, it was still exciting to watch.

- The moment L started appearing and his fervent eating of sweet stuff. That part where he stringed doughnuts, cakes and various snacks on a barbecue skewer and offered it to Yagami Soichiro was simply hillarious! L really provided lots of comical relief in the movie. Another favourite part was L saying that he and Light had something in common: both of them are childish and hate to lose. This has got to be one of the most classical lines in the story spoken by L. ^__^

- The bus-jacking incident, especially when Ryuk scared the wits out of that criminal

As for the characters/cast, my no.1 favourite would be L played by Matsuyama Kenichi. He's really a dead ringer for L in the manga especially his mannerisms and how he devours the sweets and snacks. Using a lollypop as the stirrer for his tea was really true to the "spirit" of L who has an unusually sweet tooth. Although I cringed at how he was eating (the thought of eating so much sweet food gives me the creeps), I wasn't put off by his performance and liked his potrayal of L very much. He's the most outstanding actor in the cast although I would have preferred to see more of him.

Second would be Nakamura Shido who plays Ryuk. Well, we don't get to see his face at all but his voice is really close to the image I have of Ryuk while reading the manga. And it is difficult to convey the emotions of the character just by using his voice so I'm very impressed by his performance (not by his private life scandals though!).

Fujiwara Tatsuya comes third for me. He does have the feel of Light to a certain extent but I think he is somewhat stuck in the middle at times. Right from the beginning, Light is supposed to have a tinge of innocence and childishness when he hasn't changed completely to a devil. In this regard, Fujiwara doesn't seem that "pure" after all. On the other hand, at this stage of the story, Light has not yet evolved into the epitome of complete evil so Fujiwara doesn't have the chance to show off his "evilness" as yet. I've seen the trailer for Part 2 and that's where I think Fujiwara will perform much better since the gap between Light's evilness and kindness will be very wide and this will be a big test of his acting skills. It will be interesting to see whether he or Matsuyama Kenichi will turn out to be the better actor at the end of the series. Nonetheless, I still think he did a pretty decent job although he was limited by some parts of the story at this point in time.

By the way, for those who are expecting to see something at the end of the movie, there's only the credits. I stayed till the end and was expecting to see some behind-the-scenes footage but was disappointed. Maybe there will be some for Part 2?!

On the whole, I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10. Except for some minor disappointments and some changes made to the setting which seemed redundant, this performed above my expectations.

Seems like there is a rush of Japanese movies to be screened this year. Nihon Chinbotsu comes on next from 26 Oct and I'll probably go for the sneak preview. There's also the Japanese Film Festival starting this month which has pretty recent films like Kamome Shokudou and Hakasei no Aishita Suishiki. And I am keeping my eyes wide opened for the exact screening date of Part 2 for Death Note...