Desu nôto (2006)

Director:

Shusuke Kaneko

Writers:

Tsugumi Ôba (comic) &
Takeshi Obata (comic) ...

Release Date:

17 June 2006 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

Plot:

A battle between the world's 2 greatest minds begins when Light Yagami finds the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to rid the world of criminals.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Notebook | Criminal | Playing God | Fiancee

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Tatsuya Fujiwara	...	Light Yagami
Ken'ichi Matsuyama	...	L
Asaka Seto	...	Naomi Misora
Shigeki Hosokawa	...	FBI Agent Ray
Erika Toda	...	Misa Amane
Shunji Fujimura	...	Watari
Takeshi Kaga	...	Souichiro Yagami
Yu Kashii	...	Shiori Kashino
Shido Nakamura	...	Ryuuk (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sota Aoyama	...	Detective Matsuda
Christopher Britton	...	Soichiro Yagami (voice: English version)
Shannon Chan-Kent	...	Misa (voice: English version)
Brian Drummond	...	Ryuk (voice)
Norman England	...	FBI Agent
Masanori Fujita	...	Stalker
Michiko Godai	...	Sachiko Yagami
Matt Lagan	...	Lind L. Taylor
Hikari Mitsushima	...	Sayu Yagami
Takeo Nakahara	...	Matsubara
Ikuji Nakamura	...	Detective Ukida
Shin Shimizu	...	Detective Mogi
Brad Swaile	...	Light Yagami (voice: English version)
Yôji Tanaka	...	Sasaki
French Tickner	...	Watari (voice: English version)
Vincent Tong	...	Matsuda - Tota
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	Police Chief Saeki
Colleen Wheeler	...	Rem (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Death Note (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:126 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | UK:12A | UK:12 | France:U | New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Company:

Death Note Film Partners

Trivia:

Light can briefly be seen reading Jenseits von Gut und Böse (English: Beyond Good and Evil) by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The basic concept of the book is that good and evil are not absolute, but rather social constructions and thus have different meanings varying from society to society. Obviously, it's a perfect choice for this movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: After L has installed cameras in Light's room and watches him from multiple angles, at one point some of the screens show Light is about to sit down, whereas on other screens Light is already sitting comfortably.

Quotes:

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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Desu nôto: The last name (2006)

Soundtrack:

Dani California

This is the reason why I bought a "Death Note" notebook at the convention!!!

I haven't seen the anime yet or read the manga but this movie convinces me to watch the anime version of it. There a lot of people who are dissatisfied watching it because they got used to the concept and flow of the original story from anime and manga. These reactions reminded me of the reviews of other anime-to-movie adaptations like Initial D and Shinobi.When I compared Initial D movie to anime I was just disappointed as the others.

This movie has its own story to tell and pleases me to spend my boring afternoon watching the bootleg copy of it. I enjoyed a lot of detective movies and this exceeded my expectations. I saw how Light and L battle their wits using method after method. Light tried so careful not to get caught under L's nose but by doing this L advances closer and closer to get to the conclusion. Characters portrayed well especially L. The CGI-freaked Death god may have some few flaws but fitted well in the scenes where he's needed. Story has their own uniqueness that I nearly sided to the vigilance of Light then found out to myself that I'm now confused for what Light did to escape revealing himself nearly at the end of the movie. L may be freakish but fits well to his demeaning role.

Overall I enjoyed it and planned to watch DS anime to see what is their big difference their talking about. I recommend this for those who like different approach of storytelling especially for those who doesn't have the unbreakable habit of comparing live-action adaptation to anime.