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:

Film Review: BATTLE ROYALE (2000)

Co-Writer/Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Running time: 114 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Action/Thriller/Drama
UK Release date: 14th September 2001

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 15th May 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I had never heard of this film until I got more seriously into films a few years ago. It’s a film that has gained some notoriety since it was released and, having finally seen it, I can see why. Not only is it very violent, but the violence is being performed on, and by, teenagers. I liked it a lot, it has some great ideas, if controversial, and it’s a really well made film.

In the near future society in Japan has broken down. Teenagers are out of control and to combat this the government brings in the controversial ‘Battle Royale’ act. A class is selected and they must go to a remote island where they are forced to kill each other off until there is only one left. They have three days to do this or they will all be killed. So they don’t just run and hide, they have been fitted with a special collar that not only gives the people running the project their location, but can be used to kill anyone in a changing ‘danger zone’. With all this explained, they are released one by one with a pack that contains a random weapon, this might be a gun if they’re lucky, or maybe a fan or a pair of binoculars if they are not. To spice things up, a couple of ‘ringers’ are also participating, these are particularly dangerous individuals. As the ‘game’ unfolds, some go it alone while others band together and some even just give up and commit suicide. But there must be a winner and as the numbers diminish it gets more desperate for the survivors.

The film mainly concentrates on two individuals, Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, who don’t want to get involved in any killing, but can they keep to it? They are later joined by Shôgo Kawada who has his own reasons for being there. The proceedings are overseen by their teacher, Kitano, who is not a man to be trifled with in this situation.

Although there is quite a lot of violence, I was surprised at how all of the deaths were handled. It’s certainly different to the way a Hollywood studio would have done it. very good performances from all of the major players; Tatsuya Fujiwara as Shuya Nanahara, Aki Maeda as Noriko Nakagawa, Tarô Yamamoto as Shôgo Kawada and Takeshi Kitano as Kitano.

I loved the use of western classical music throughout this film, it fitted the images really well and gave it a bit of a quality that I really enjoyed. As each death occurs graphics on the screen tell the audience who is gone and how many are left, another touch that I really liked. It is a film I would definitely see again and one, for those that like this sort of thing, I can highly recommend.

My Score: 8.2/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0266308/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1217514-battle_royale/
Official Site (Japan): http://www.br3d.jp/
Trailer:

Film Review: DEATH NOTE (2006)

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

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

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 13th March 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

On seeing a trailer for this one I was intrigued and so I recorded the film. It’s in Japanese with subtitles although I’m lead 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. More of my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first (summary haters and those that don’t wish to know anything about the plot please find out who’s behind these mysterious murders while I write the next paragraph).

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 gods of spoilers.

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, but 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 this time around). Over all, a pretty enjoyable film with some very clever plot-twists and a real cliff-hanger ending… Recommended.

My score: 7.6/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0758742/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1200249-death_note/
Official Site: http://deathnote.viz.com/
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2506305725812227013