Death Note (2006)

Death Note (2006)

Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Asaka Seto

Here’s a bit of a change from 60’s horror movies: A live-action movie version of a Japanese comic. Just… a little different. I have to say, I’ve been wanting to see these movies (there’s a sequel made at the same time) since I read the comic (manga, whatever. I’m saying COMIC, dammit). It’s really the only Japanese comic series that I’ve fully enjoyed… and they did a great job with this adaptation.

The story behind Death Note is that, one day, a college student named Light finds a notebook that can kill people. You see, anybody’s name you write down in the book (as long as you can imagine their face and a couple other stipulations) dies, either by heart attack or through a more complicated route you can imagine. Light decides to use this power to kill criminals. By the truckload. In mere months, he becomes one of the greatest mass murderers in history, and nobody has any idea how it’s happening.

In comes L, a teenage detective who shrouds himself in mystery and loves sugar, but is also brilliant and one of the most capable minds in the world. L pits his wits against Light (who is no slouch in the genius department), and the story unfolds from there.

I find it’s harder for me to review movies I liked than those I didn’t, because I can’t talk about as much for fear of giving stuff away. And that is a rightly justified fear in the case of Death Note, which has an amazingly well-written story (taken incredibly faithfully from the comics, which is unheard of, to be quite honest) with all sorts of twists and turns that you won’t see coming. I watched these movies with my friend who had only seen an episode or two of the anime they made (also surprisingly good, though I haven’t seen much more than that myself), and… I think I ruined it a bit for him, haha. He kept asking questions and I kept answering them… How horrible of me.

In any case, I highly recommend this movie and it’s sequel, Death Note II: The Last Name to fans of mystery, suspense, and most of all, intelligent storytelling. You can completely overlook the “anime” stigma with these movies, even. There’s literally no reason not to see them.