Film Review: DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME (2006)

Director: Shûsuke Kaneko
Running time: 141 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Adventure/Crime/Drama
UK Release date: 4^th July 2008

Re-watched on Sky+ Sunday 6^th November 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Following directly on from the first film, ‘Death Note’, this film continues the story of Light Yagami and his association with Ryuuk, one of the Gods of Death. Even longer and an even more complicated plot than the first one, this movie will really test your powers of concentration as you plough through 2 hours and 21 minutes of subtitles. It’s worth it though because I enjoyed this one slightly more. Yes, it’s way too long, but it’s never boring with all those plot twists. I’ll tell you more after this brief summary.

Light Yagami has now infiltrated the team investigating the mysterious deaths of many criminals worldwide perpetrated by ‘Kira’. The team is lead by a young genius who calls himself ‘L’. Meanwhile, a young TV presenter, Misa Amane, is presented with a second Death Note book by another God of Death, Rem. She is a fan of Kira’s work and decides to use the book to find him. Calling herself ‘Kira II’, she causes panic at a TV station and eventually Kira is revealed to her. She is in awe of him and the pair makes a pact and joins forces. Misa Amane has the ability to see a person’s real name and Light wants to use this ability to discover the identity of his nemesis, ‘L’. But is ‘L’ too clever for them? Well, I’ll leave it there; with two ‘Gods of Death’ involved I don’t want to take any chances with the Spoiler Police today.

A really well made film but, again, the animation of the ‘Gods’ didn’t look too great on TV; maybe it was better on the big screen. Decent performances all round, particularly from; Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami, Takeshi Kaga as Soichiro Yagami (his father), Erika Toda as Misa Amane and Ken'ichi Matsuyama as the eccentric genius ‘L’.

Again dealing with the subject of justice, I thought this film raised some very interesting questions. Although no real conclusions are drawn and it does tend to concentrate more on the characters than the issues it raises, I still found it an interesting watch. There is very much a fantasy element in the film, without which it could not have worked, and so be prepared to suspend reality for a while, but if you’ve watched the first film you’ll already know this. Over all, I found it an intelligent fantasy crime drama with maybe a few too many plot twists and a tad over-long, but still quite enjoyable. Many threads from the first film are neatly tied up and so I’m happy to deem it… Recommended.

My score: 7.9/10

IMDb Score: 7.4/10 (based on 5,103 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0810827/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Misa Amane: How could I ever face Light?
Ryuuk: Face? He likes your face.

Rem: Yagami Light, you will manage to kill a Shinigami. In fact, you are the Devil.

L: All the Death Notes shall be left with me.
Ryuuk: You ain't gonna use 'em? That's just lame.

LINKS:
Official Site: http://deathnote.viz.com/
Trailer:

Film Review: DEATH NOTE [Desu nôto] (2006)

Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Running time: 126 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
UK Release date: 10^th November 2007 (Leeds International Film Festival)

Re-watched on Sky+ Saturday 5^th November 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I reviewed this film earlier in the year and on re-reading the review I find there’s little I would change. The reason I gave it a re-watch is because I have finally tracked down the sequel, which I intend to watch very soon. Anyway, here’s the review, (with a few edits).

It’s in Japanese with subtitles although I’m led to believe there may be a dubbed version out there somewhere. It is an adaptation of a very popular Manga which I found pretty enjoyable, if a little too long. A very interesting film that asks some intriguing questions about the law and how criminals are brought to justice. More of my thoughts later, after this very brief summary.

Criminals are mysteriously dying of heart attacks. All over the world murderers, rapists, thieves and criminals of all types are randomly dying in unusual circumstances. In Japan the police have dubbed the man responsible ‘Kira’ and he is revered by many of the public. There are those, however, who would prefer the legal process took its course and have dubbed ‘Kira’ a serial killer. The young man behind all this is called Light Yagami, the son of the policeman in charge of the case, Souichiro Yagami. He is a law student and, having become disillusioned with the law, found a notebook one dark night. He also met one of the gods of death, Ryuuk, who was to stay with him as long as he had the book. The instructions for using the book were simple, just write the name of the person you want dead while thinking of their image and they will die of a heart attack within forty seconds if some other means of death is not specified. The police seem powerless to stop him until a mysterious stranger who calls himself ‘L’ offers to help… I’ll leave it there so as not to enrage the Spoiler Police (Ancient Gods Division).

This is a very well made film with very much the feel of a Manga. I always find films from different cultures interesting and this is no exception. At times some of the CGI (used for Ryuuk) looks a little ropy, but apart from that I found it very well made. All the lead actors did a very good job; Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami, Kenichi Matsuyama as ‘L’, Asaka Seto as Naomi Misora, Shigeki Hosokawa as FBI Agent Ray, Takeshi Kaga as Souichiro Yagami, Yu Kashii as Shiori Kashino and finally, Shidô Nakamura as the voice of Ryuuk.

At the end of the day I found this film very enjoyable, if a little over-long. The story does move along a quite a pace, but I found that at just over two hours I had really had enough (maybe that’s just the fact I had to read subtitles for all that time). The end of the movie leaves it on a real cliff-hanger and so I’m waiting to the sequel to appear in the listings again (I missed it first time around). One thing that did strike me on a second viewing was that the film is maybe trying to be a little too clever for its own good. It’s not really a bad thing, it just makes for an, at times, very elaborate plot line that some may find hard to follow. Over all though, a pretty enjoyable film with some very clever plot-twists and a real cliff-hanger ending… Recommended.

My score: 7.6/10

IMDb Score: 7.8/10 (based on 11,483 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0758742/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
First Rule of the Death Note: The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

L: [during a television broadcast] I am justice.
Light Yagami: Justice? I am justice! I am the god of the new world, saving it from evil and ridding it of fear. Those who betray God are the evil ones.

L: Gathering from Kira's behaviour, he is very immature and hates to lose... just like me.

LINKS:
Official Site: http://deathnote.viz.com/
Trailer: