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Death Note's 1 And 2; good japanese horror
Topic Started: Nov 28 2007, 07:49 AM (156 Views)
copperhead
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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gents, this movie and sequel are excellent[ done by the guy that did the last three gamera flicks] , basically about a supernatural book in which you can write a person's name in it and they die
1 it becomes a horror story, a police drama, and has many twists-----good demons effects as well-ralph grasso
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Black Tiger
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Death Note was a very popular Japanese manga and anime series. Now there are two Japanese feature films telling this story.

Like Copperhead, I highly recommend it. Death Note, directed by Shusuke Kaneko, tells the story of a young disillusioned law student, Light (Tatsuya Fujiwara) who finds a mysterious notebook. Writing the name of a person in the book while picturing their face causes them to die. He uses the book to kill criminals to bring justice to the world. Although crime around the world reduces by 70%, the police are unhappy with the wholesale slaughter and form a special task force to run the mystery killer to Earth. Assisting them is "L", also a man of mystery and the world's greatest detective. This is a classic cat-and-mouse detective thriller as a criminal mastermind and the world's greatest detective plot and counterplot. Think Prof. Moriarty vs. Sherlock Holmes. Add in a fantasy element with a mysterious God of Death who follows Light around, not helping one side or another, but just enjoying the chaos. The first movie ends on a powerful cliffhanger.

The second film is called Death Note: The Last Name
The battle of wits between Light and L continues but I felt it just got overly complex trying to incorporate too many story elements from the manga. Kaneko said at one point he thought of creating a third film so things wouldn't seem rushed, but the studio nixed that idea. He came in as the director after the project was already started and rewrote the entire script in about 2 months. A monumental task that is incredible given the level of complexity of the plot threads and the excellence at which they are carried out. Although he had to steamline the storyline for the movies which has led to criticism by fans of the manga, I think the decisions he made really enhanced the films. Unfortunately, I can't mention any of them here without giving away some of the delightful plot twists.

The second film introduces yet another Death Note book and yet another killer. At times it's hard to keep track of what plotting and what mechanations each of the characters use to manipulate the others. Think of it as human chess. Everything does tie up at the end, however.

Kaneko has announced a prequel, but I can't even talk about that without giving surprises away. Unfortunately, he won't be directing it - that will go to the director of the recent hit "Ringu" (the Japanese version of the ring).

If you're a fan of police thrillers, clever and complex plotting and a dash of fantasy thrown in, the Death Note movies are worth tracking down.

The manga is available at better comics stores everywhere translated into English by Viz.
The animated series is currently airing on the Sci Fi channel which follows the manga fairly closely but the English voiceover acting does not complement the material. Newly released DVDs of the anime series include Japanese w/English subtitles and English dubbed version.

The movies, which I think are the best interpretation of the material is due on dvd some time next year.

This was an immensely popular franchise in Japan and throughout Asia last year. I am sure some enterprising chap will adapt this for the American audience. The story is just too good.

Actually if you scout around the internet, you can see trailers of both films. In Japanese, but you get an idea of the cinematography and action.
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