Japan premiere event of new movie "Death Note Light up the NEW world"

The Japan premiere event of new movie "Death Note Light up the NEW world" was hed at Tokyo Dome City Hall on 20 October which was attended by the director Sato Shinsuke and cast members Higashide Masahiro, Ikematsu Sousuke, Suda Masaki, Toda Erika, Kawaei Rina and Funakoshi Eiichiro. The movie which will be shown in cinemas from 29 October, is set 10 years after the end of the previous Death Note movies where Yagami Light (Fujiwara Tatsuya) and L (Matsuyama Kenichi) battled to the end of their lives. In this new movie, Higashide plays Mishima who belongs to the special department handling Death Note-related cases while Ikematsu plays Ryuuzaki who is the successor of L and Suda plays Shion, a cyber terrorist who adores Kira i.e. Light. When 6 Death Notes are dropped into the human world, another series of intense battles over their ownership arise as a result.

When asked who among them would be most likely to use the Death Note, Ikematsu and Suda both chose Higashide who also chose himself. Suda said that Higashide is an eccentric guy while Ikematsu explained in detail that Higashide is a cute person who is easily influenced by others and has a strong sense of justice so he's most likely to use the Death Note. Upon hearing this, Higashide couldn't help but say that Ikematsu had done a good job describing him. When asked if they would like to become Death Note owners, Higashide was not keen on the idea but Kawaei wanted to own one even though she won't actually kill anyone with it.

However, when asked about what's appealing about their characters, the trio were visibly stumped for words. Higashide said that Mishima is a passionate police detective with special feelings for the Death Note while Ikematsu said that Ryuuzaki had inherited many things from L and wanted to exceed his predecessor. As for Suda, he said that the reality of acting in this movie scared him. Upon hearing their answers, Toda who is their senior in the Death Note series "scolded" them for just describing their characters and not even answering the question properly. In response, Ikematsu suggested jokingly that they should redo the event from the time they entered the venue.

In this movie, news of the previous movies' cast i.e. Fujiwara, Matsuyama and Toda's appearances were very much welcomed. The director Sato said that when he saw Fujiwara's acting, it was as if he had met Light again and God had reappeared. As for his meeting with Toda, he was very excited about it although she commented that he didn't seem that emotional to her. Suda also chipped in to say that he was very thrilled to meet Misa Misa (Toda's character) but Toda didn't seem to believe his response.

As news of Toda's breakup with Kase Ryo had appeared on the same day of the event, the media tried to ask about this but was stopped by the movie company's staff. Toda herself also did not react to the question.

Reflecting on her reprisal of the role Amane Misa, Toda recounted that when she acted in the original movies 10 years ago, she was a newbie actress who had made her debut less than one year ago. However, upon seeing her name on the cinema's screen when the ending credits were rolling, she realised what kind of work she was doing so the movies mean a lot to her. In the new movie, Misa had changed from an idol to an actress but she still felt the pressure since what she did 10 years ago did not really come in useful this time. Nonetheless, she was still very happy to be able to play this character again.

Kawaei who was 11 when the original movies were screened 10 years ago, revealed that she was so affected that she looked for notebooks at home and even tried to buy a black notebook from a stationery store then. This led Suda to tease her and ask if she had wanted to kill someone back then. With regard to Kawaei's performance, the director commented that her expressionless face was rather frightening to look at.

Sources: Oricon 1 /   Oricon 2 / Oricon 3 / Oricon 4 / Eiga.com