Not an accurate adaption but an excellent one none the less.
This film is what introduced me to Death Note, after seeing it I rushed out to get the manga books and the anime series. I am now a huge Death Note fan and would recomend this film to both existing fans and people new to the genre. It is not an accurate adaption but it does the books justice. The casting is excellent if not what I would have expected, in particular Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light is fantastic. I found that in the first film I was siding with Light though in the books I was firmly on L'sside from almost the beginning. The addition of Shoiri as Light's girlfriend helped to humanise Light and made the moral dilema seem a little more in depth that in the books. Some of Light's more clever tricks were sadly missing and I thought there should have been a lot more Ryuk but I guess you can only fit so much into just 2 films. Seeing this film as a newcomer I thought it was brilliant, seeing it again as a fan of the books I still thought it was brilliant. I hope this review has been helpfull in your decision wether or not to purchase this film.

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
Death Note is a live action film based on the hit manga and anime of the same name.

For a start it stays true to what its based off there is some great acting.

Light(The villain/anti hero of the story) is brilliantly visualized and as for L well the same can be said only even better!

It does change some of the plot (its a film and it doesnt have time to play with like the manga or anime)but its done right and even a fan wont know what happens next!

Well worth it fantastic version of a great series.

----Alex Gradwell/Venomtheevil

Not exactly like the manga, but still excellent
Firstly, this DVD set is beautiful. The case has been made to look like an actual Death Note, with the rules and a couple of notebook pages in the front. The rest of the pages give actor and character bios and directors and producer notes. The attention to detail in the marketing is second to none.

As for the film, I thought the inevitable changes would bother me, but they don't. In fact, I think if the writers of the manga had thought of these changes, they would have included them. The character of Naomi Misora is put to good use instead of just disappearing. Without spoiling the story, she really helps set up just how evil (and clever) Light is, which is needed for the sequel.

The actors have been chosen well. Misa and L especially, were so like the characters from the manga (apart from Misa not having blond hair). I found Light's face a bit too wide to be like the manga drawing, but his acting was still good.

If there are any Death Note fans reading this, buy this limited edition set NOW before it is no longer available (the sequel too for that matter). I am so glad I did.

Different but still great
Death Note is one of the most popular franchises to come out of Japan in a while with the original manga, an anime series and two live action films to its name, all of which have had rave reviews around the world. This is the first of the two movies and although there are some major changes to the plot in places, it does remain a great story.

In the film Light Yagami discovers a Death Note, a notebook used by Shinigami (Gods of Death) to kill people. Light uses this Death Note to begin ridding the world of criminals in order to create his perfect world. Meanwhile the Japanese police are approached by the mysterious but brilliant detective L who has a plan too capture the anonymous killer known as Kira.

The story for this film is, as I have already said, changed somewhat from that of the manga and anime but many of these changes are understandable due to having to fit as much information into the two hours of the film as possible. Despite this most of the characters remain relatively unchanged and if anything Light is even more manipulative and cold hearted than he is in the source material. As well as this a couple of the changes made to the story do actually keep you guessing as to what will happen towards the end even if you have read the source material.

The main problem that this film has is that the acting on display is rather hit and miss with some of the people involve being dreadfully hammy and others being quite good. This is quickly forgotten though as the quality of the writing is very high and the film remains extremely enjoyable all the way through. In the end this live action adaptation of Death Note is a worthy addition to the franchise and while it is something of a different animal to either the manga or the anime, it is no less enjoyable for that.

Good film, but very long-winded
My brother bought a copy of this off eBay (a region 0 release from Taiwan), which wasn't bad at all - and we've both watched it 2 or 3 times.

It has a nice mix of horror, crime, thriller, plot twists and comedy (Ryuk bouncing around and freaking out because he can't have an apple was especially hilarious).

The acting is very good, with lots of the actors having been very experienced beforehand - the actor (I forgot his name... temporarily) who plays Light was the main character in Battle Royale, for those who can remember it. :)

I thought it went on quite long for a film, and there were some 'filler' scenes, that made it very long.

I did like the slight 'twist' at the end, although it's not canon to the anime or manga.

In short, 3 stars because it's long, but, on a positive note, it's a very good film that will keep you thoroughly entertained for its 2-hour ride.

Hide Reviews