 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | VIZ PICTURES | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMOPRHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 5.1 / 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 120 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/19/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 08/30/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
The much anticipated live action adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s manga phenomenon Death Note sees the horror come to life. The story of a Death Note with the power to kill whoever’s name is written down falls into the hands of Light Yagami. He is the son of a dedicated police chief and himself an aspiring law student. A night of discovery sees his ideals broken and his belief in the justice system shattered. At that moment, a mysterious notebook labeled Death Note appears. Rules are listed inside. Thinking it all a joke, Light writes down a name. To his astonishment, the person dies mysteriously! Rather than being horrified, Light is thrilled as a terrible plan is born. He decides to use the Death Note to rid the world of crime and create his ideal world of innocence…at a steep price of the death of hundreds if not thousands or even more! Death Note is an unparalleled suspense thriller. It touches on the supernatural with the Death Note and the existence of death spirits known as shinigami in the appearance of the death spirit Ryuk, but the story relies more on the psychological aspects to create a heady cat and most chase between Light and the enigmatic and eccentric genius L who has vowed to bring Light to justice. The film covers the beginning of the story, showing Light’s discovery of the Death Note and its abilities. His killings make the news with all those reports of mysterious deaths with no one present and criminals dying left, right and center. To find this killer the media has nicknamed Kira, a Task Force is formed, one headed by none other than Light’s own father. But the real mastermind is L, a young man with odd ways who is brilliant, perhaps as brilliant as Light. The tale quickly becomes disturbing as Light crosses the line. He turns from the guilty to harming the innocent when FBI agents are sent to track “Kira” down. When he kills them, he has stepped over his own rules and his ideal of a perfect world by killing those he at first said he was protecting. This shrewd and cold calculation is later nightmarishly revealed when the fiancée of one of his victims and Light’s own girlfriend are caught in the crossfire of his aims and L’s attempts to discover who Kira really is. The film culminates in the meeting of L and Light face-to-face as the story prepares to move into its second act. Although the unfinished feeling of the end of the film might leave viewers wanting, the acting and cinematography are excellent and the story, although a bit off of the original manga, stays close enough in the vein of the manga to delight Death Note fans. The movie proves just as powerful in presenting the main themes of the story; the theme of absolute power corrupting absolutely, the questioning of capital punishment, justice, and is it right to achieve one’s ideals despite the means? The powerful story is aided in its presentation by Director Shusuke Kaneko. An accomplished director who has brought films to the screen for over 30 years, he is best known for his monster films such as Godzilla and the Gamera series. Here in Death Note, he shows an excellent eye for use of imagery to set the atmosphere and suspense of the film. The music is an excellent score arranged by Kenji Kawai (Avalon, Ghost in the Shell 2, Patlabor, Ringu) with a couple of songs, including the ending theme done by America’s Red Hot Chili Peppers. It is further given strength by the excellent acting of Tatsuja Fujiwara (a prolific TV and film actor in such titles as Battle Royale and Shinsengumi) as Light and Kenichi Matsuyama (The Taste of Tea, NANA) as L. Fans of the English dubbing in the anime release will be happy to learn that the dubbing in the movie carries over the anime character voices. Although this film is only the beginning of the Death Note saga, fans will want to keep tuned until the end of the credits for a preview of the second film, due to follow soon, but I can imagine for fans that it will not be soon enough.
EXTRAS:
Bonus features include Death Note anime trailer, Death Note manga sampler, interviews with director Shusuke Kaneko along with behind the scenes, and other Viz Pictures live action movie trailers. The extras menu is quite something. It features Ryuk’s face in behind a batch of different sized apples. As you click along the different apples, you’ll see the extra feature listed each on a different apple. Keep clicking and you’ll notice that the extra features continue to change from apple to apple! So where interview 1 is might be the trailer the next round. It’s just a bit of fun that shows the detail and thought the production put into the DVD release.
IN SUMMARY:
Death Note the movie is a thrilling beginning to the suspenseful and riveting tale of two geniuses, one a murderer, the other striving to catch him in a deadly cat and mouse game with the fate of society and the world as the ultimate stakes. Often chilling, it is a provocative and brilliant film. |
