I saw a lot of movies during Subway Cinema’s New York Asian Film Festival this year. This is the first of my coverage, which will be a bit delayed this year thanks to an Otaku USA deadline and San Diego Comic Con being back-to-back in next two weeks. (Be sure to pick up Otaku USA issue 7, on newstands now! I have a few reviews and a bio in it.)

I meant to see L: Change the World with anime bloggers the Reverse Thieves but I failed to communicate that the show had sold out long ago, and I was surprised I got tickets, and last year’s Death Note films were the most popular screenings in the festival (they predated the Viz theatrical release by an entire year). My friends showed up confused and ticketless, facing an enormous line with no hopes of getting a ticket. Sorry about that!

L: Change the World

North American Premiere
Running Time: 129 minutes

I think of myself as more of an L fan than a Death Note fan, so I was very excited to see this film. I had only one expectation: I wanted to see L eating sugary snacks. I was not disappointed; L consumes a lot of sugar in this film. I didn’t know anything about the plot, so I was in for a few surprises. Here is a short list:

Things I Did Not Expect to See in This Film

• Ebola
• Cute children
• Third World Jungles
• A Maid Cafe
• People bleeding from the eyes
• A Manga Cafe
• Vomiting of blood
• James Bond-style villains
• A Hot pink crepe truck with the word “Angel” on it

Ever see Andromeda Strain? How about that episode of the X-Files where people get exploding facial sores? Change the World is not that grotesque, but the ebola scenes are disgusting, and I did not go into a Death Note movie prepared for such a high level of gore. The film attempts to somehow balance the gross-out factor with two very cute (orphaned) children as key characters. Without the children, the film might be much darker. Without the ebola, the orphans would be totally unbearable and obnoxiously saccharine.

Director Hideo Nakata also handled Ringu, Ringu 2, and Hollywood’s The Ring Two - which might explain the gore factor. Kenichi Matsuyama is totally adorable as L, and delivers an even performance in this otherwise rocky road of a film. Matsuya also plays Shin in the live-action Nana movie and has rolls in Linda Linda Linda and The Taste of Tea, all of which are available from Viz Pictures. Matsuyama even plays Robo in the Sexy Voice and Robo drama - which I must watch, since it’s one of my favorite manga titles. Matsuyama’s English dialog in the film is not great, but he’s cute, so I’m willing let it slide.

Change the World takes place after the end of the previous two Death Note live-action movies, which have different continuity than the manga or anime series. In the films, L has written his own name in the Death Note at the end of his battle with Light, giving himself 30 days left to live, which renders Light’s attacks useless.

Light, Ryuk, and Misa only get brief cameos, but Ray’s wife Naomi makes a confusing appearance in a flashback to Los Angeles (covered in the light novel Death Note: Another Note), in a long scene irrelevant to the rest of the film.

Smash cut to the jungles of Thailand, where a deadly plague is wiping out a poor village with horrible ebola-esque facial sores. A group of American bio-suited men blow up the entire town, but agent K narrowly escapes in a truck, saving an orphan boy in the process. Agent K doesn’t survive, but he gives the (apparently) immune orphan child (who happens to be a math genius) a message for L.

A group of sharply dressed Japanese scientists (reminiscent of Andromeda Strain) get news of the village and analyze the virus - it’s a bio-weapon mix of ebola and the flu, 10 times more deadly than ebola. Wait, let me say that again: Ten times more deadly than ebola!!!

Meanwhile, a group of hyper-pro-environmental terrorist kill some rich dude and come after the cure for the virus so they can release it on the world and become rulers in the post-bio-apocalypse. This ragtag band of bioterrorists consist of a scarred man with one all-white eye, a super genius clean-cut female scientist, a crazy-eyed girl with a giant knife, and a frightened-looking young man with a machine gun who doesn’t seem all that evil. I really liked the crazy-knife-girl, who seemed to have wandered out of Kill Bill into this film. Her tone is totally inappropriate for Change the World, but I found her hilarious. The other villains are essentially James Bond rejects.

The only scientist with the cure for the virus kills himself in front of the bad guys as well as his own daughter in a gruesome twenty-minute death scene. I’ve seen several Japanese films in the last few years (most recently Dororo) where characters have extremely long death speeches… cut it out, Japan! You’re really trying my patience!

The scientist’s junior-high-aged daughter escapes, infected with the virus but displaying no symptoms, and finds L with a clue left by her dad (the clue is a math puzzle). Meanwhile, the unnamed math-genius orphan is delivered onto L’s doorstop. With just 15 days left to live, L must find a cure for the deadly virus while baby-sitting at the same time.

Knowledge of the Death Note franchise is a prerequisite for understanding the film, but if you didn’t know anything about L going in, it might add an enjoyable bizarreness level to the film.

I particularly liked a montage early in the film wherein L is going through his old case files, wrapping up unsolved mysteries in the time he has left to live. It’s strongly implied that Princess Diana’s death was an assassination instead of an accident. I wonder if a lot of Japanese people think of Diana’s death as a conspiracy, since there was a Golgo 13 manga story (volume 4 in the U.S.) wherein Golgo assassinates Diana (or possibly just her boyfriend, I haven’t actually read it yet). It would be hilarious if L was solving a Golgo 13 case, but I don’t think it was implied in the film.

Change the World is ridiculously uneven, with long science-y scenes punctuating cute orphan hijinks. It’s a lot more high-concept than the previous films, between the jungle locations and a huge airport scene at the end it must have had a fairly high budget. There are great comedic moments and a funny low-speed chase scene, but overall the movie is just weird. There are a number of wonderful scenes (like L riding the train), but the film just doesn’t hold up as a whole.

The film is only a must-see for L fans, but it’s exactly the kind of movie you want to watch with someone else so you can discuss it afterwards.

My early reviews of the previous two Death Note live action movies draw a lot of traffic to this site. Viz did a small theatrical release of the two films earlier this year (2008), and will certainly release the region one DVDs sometime soon. Logically speaking, Viz will most likely also release L: Change the World on DVD eventually, but probably not before 2009. Nothing has been announced as of this writing, but I’d put money on it. Please be sure to support Viz by purchasing the legitimate releases when they come out. (Hint: Legitimate release won’t have Cantonese subtitles, and are not region free.)

L: Change the World has no distributor at the time of this writing. Look forward to it in 2009 or 2010.

In conjunction with the New York Asian Film Festival, PopCultureShock is giving away three passes to the international premiere of Tamami: The Baby’s Curse, based on manga by Kazuo Umezu.

To enter, email ninjaconsultant@gmail.com between now and 5 PM tomorrow (Friday, June 20th), and we will select three winners by a random drawing.

You might remember Umezu for titles such as Drifting Classroom and Cat-Eyed Boy. Tamami: The Baby’s Curse, was directed by Yudai Yamaguch, whose Cromartie High School film was in the NYAFF in 2006. Yamaguch also directed the gory sports comedy Battlefield Baseball.

Here’s a description of Tamami: The Baby’s Curse from the NYAFF website:

Birthed in trauma, Yoko (Nako Mizusawa) is a fifteen-year-old orphan who suddenly discovers that she isn’t an abandoned child after all: her birth family are still alive and they want her back. She arrives at the family mansion to discover that her mother is insane, the housekeeper is a creepy old ghoul and her dad is a kindly, but distracted, professor of…we’re never quite sure. Oh, and there’s a crazed mutant baby in the attic that has the mind of an adult but the body of a killer infant with claws and fangs. And it’s not happy to have a big sister.

After reading over my list of five things to do at NY Anime Fest, Kaiju Shakedown blogger and NY Asian Film Festival guru Grady Hendrix sent me this mildly outraged email:

I saw your list of things to do at the Anime fest this weekend, and while it was great it was fatally flawed because you missed the motion picture event of the decade….the free screening of CASSHERN!!!!

This built-in-the-basement cracked masterpiece has never been shown in the US in all its majesty and this is the 35mm screening, of the complete 141 minute version of the film, in Japanese with English subtitles, and introduced by the movie’s military advisor (also the advisor on BATTLE ROYALE) and the soundtrack composer who’s part of the J-pop duo, Unicorn Table.

It’s at the ImaginAsian (East 59th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) on Saturday night at 10pm and it’s free. This is going to be a rowdy, nutty, woolly event featuring singing sheep, prize giveaways, a visit from Naughty Santa and a screening of the greatest steampunk, anti-war, Space Nazis vs. Robo-Commies movie ever made.

So there you have it, folks… a film premiere that’s guaranteed to entertain (or offend) Monty Python fans, Akira buffs, Cold Warriors, robots, and border collies alike. Admission is free for anyone with a NY Anime Fest pass. The ImaginAsian will also be running a stand-by line for the general public; get there by 9:30 PM, and you have a good chance of getting in.

With apologies to Erik Jansen and The Onion…

VIZ Pictures just announced that they’ve acquired the distribution rights to the two live-action Death Note films:

VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television (NTV) the North American theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live-action feature film Death Note and its sequel, Death Note: The Last Name, based on the Death Note anime and manga series…

VIZ Pictures will open Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name in a series of special screenings at Austin’s Fantastic Fest 2007, September 20-27, and at the 2007 Vancouver Asian Film Festival, November 1-4. Theater information follows at the end of this release and future screenings will continue throughout 2008. VIZ Pictures also plans to release Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name on DVD in the summer of 2008…

Death Note is based on the hit supernatural action mystery manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The live-action film, directed by Shusuke Kaneko, known as a director of popular monster film Gamera series, was released in 2006 and mirrors the manga’s story… The film’s sequel, Death Note: The Last Name, was a hit in Japan, staying #1 for four straight weeks. While it closely followed major plot elements from the original manga series, several new key story differences were also introduced. Both films star Takeshi Kaga, who is widely known by North American audiences as the flamboyant host of TV’s Iron Chef.

Erin F., our own fujoshi-in-residence, caught both flicks at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival; you can read her take on live Death Note by clicking here. Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name will be showing at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX (Sept. 20-27th; click here for screen times and tickets) and the Vancouver Asian Film Festival in Vancouver, BC (Nov. 1-4th; click here for screen times and tickets). N.B. Only the first film will be shown in Vancouver.

Shinigami, evil teenagers with perfect hair, killer notebooks, and Chairman Kaga… now that’s some classy entertainment! No word on what the theme ingredient is for either film.

For further reading:

• Full text of the press release
• imdb entry, Death Note (Desu nôto, 2006)
• imdb entry, Death Note: The Last Name (Desu nôto: The last name, 2006)
• Official Death Note webpage (anime)
• Official Death Note webpage (manga)
• Wikipedia entry, Death Note

As the New York Asian Film Festival draws to a close, Viz is releasing one of my favorite films that I saw in the festival two years ago: The Taste of Tea. In fact, several of the films I watched at NYAFF over the last few years have recently been acquired by Viz, much to my surprise and delight. I can imagine the Viz film scout attending the same festivals I did and picking out the same films I would pick.

You really can’t go wrong with Viz Picutes so far. All of their live action titles are solid entertainment. It’s almost as if Viz Pictures is your cool friend, out there attending festivals and recommending movies to you, except instead of loaning you R2 DVDs (or VCDs) they distribute R1 DVDs.

I hope they pick up Zebraman and Dasepo Naughty Girls next!

The Taste of Tea (NYAFF 2005)

Directed by Katsuhito Ishii
Viz Pictures, 143 minutes
No Rating

I haven’t seen a lot of magical realism films, so The Taste of Tea might be a first. Directed by Katsuhito Ishii, (best known for his animated sequence in Kill Bill), The Taste of Tea won the 2005 Subway Cinema audience award, as well as a truckload of awards at other festivals.

The film follows the members the eccentric Haruno family through a transition period in the lives of the characters.

Grandpa Haruno, as played by Tatsuya Gashuin, (Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle) is a retired animator with THE GREATEST OLD MAN HAIR IN CINEMA HISTORY. The mom, Yoshiko, is making a short animated film to get back into the anime industry now that her children are grown. The dad, Nobuo is a hypno-therapist. Hajime, the brother, is in junior high and has just fallen in love with the new transfer student Aoi (she’s also in Kamikaze Girls) whom he’s too paralyzed to speak with. Sachiko, the little sister, has the peculiar problem of seeing a giant version of herself following her around. She knows it’s in her imagination, but she can’t get the giant Sachiko to disappear. Uncle Ayano is a recording engineer who befriends an experimental dancer. The other uncle, Nobuo’s brother, is a manga artist who gets kneed in the groin by love (both physically and metaphorically).

The film is slow-paced and somewhat artsy-fartsy, but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in weirdness. For example, in one scene, a yakuza gets buried in mud past his head. He’s left to die, but Sachiko discovers this “mud man” and gets help from two stop-motion animators who happen to be working nearby.

When I think about CG or special effects in films, I usually think of action, sci-fi, or fantasy elements. The Taste of Tea cleverly uses CG to portray heartfelt moments of everyday life. Lovelorn Hajime imagines a train going straight through his head. Sachiko’s moment of triumph is a huge special effects shot that is pulled off so well that theater audiences actually applaud the scene spontaneously.

One of my friends who saw it with me at NYAFF said it best on her blog:

“As a bonus, this movie hits a whole bunch of dork buttons. Yoshiko makes anime, Nobuo’s brother is a manga artist, Hajime plays Go (look at it as equivalent to chess), the suburb has two hardcore otaku and Anno Hideaki from Gainax has a cameo role.”

The same friend shelled out $80 to get the special-edition DVD from Japan with the artwork the Grandfather in the story makes at the end of the film. Thanks to Viz, you won’t have to shell out $50 to import an R2 of this fine film–you can get it at a normal American price of $25, with a special edition DVD going for $35.

The Taste of Tea has been compared to Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, and Linda Linda Linda (below) has been compared to films by Jim Jarmusch, but honestly these are films that high schoolers and adults unfamiliar with (or alienated by) Bergman or Jarmusch could enjoy. While I’m at it, I think Kamikaze Girls compares quite favorably to Raising Arizona, but you need not have seen the Coen brothers’ back catalog to “get” it.

The Taste of Tea is a surprise and a delight. It is highly recommended.

Linda Linda Linda (NYAFF 2005)

Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita
Viz Pictures, 114 minutes
No Rating

The title of Linda Linda Linda will be lost on American audiences unfamiliar with the Japanese band The Blue Hearts. The Blue Hearts’ song titled Linda Linda Linda was a huge hit in Japan in the 1990’s and can be found in any Japanese language karaoke songbook, guaranteed.

Linda Linda Linda the film has a plot that covers three hectic days preceding a high school cultural festival. Regular anime watchers and manga readers will be familiar with the cultural festival customs, but if you’re looking for examples, there’s a plot-central festival in Kare Kano, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (directed by Oshii), and the more recent The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (episode 12).

Kei’s band was going to perform a song in the school gym for the festival, until the guitarist Moe sprained her wrist at the last possible minute. Kei (played by Yu Kashii) decides to play at the festival anyway, substituting Moe with whomever happens to walk across the school courtyard next. The unlucky passerby turns out to be the Korean exchange student Son (played by Bae Doo-Na), who doesn’t speak Japanese fluently enough to realize that she’s accidentally agreeing to sing for the band. Over the next few days the band practices like crazy, as Son learns to sing.

The film is shot in an almost-documentary style, with straight up, un-glamorous cinematography to bring home the realism of the moment. Even if you’ve never heard of a school festival, anyone can identify with this kind of stress over a big project. An older Japanese woman watching this in the audience behind us at the ImagineAsia theater kept saying “I feel so bad for them!” in Japanese. My boyfriend loved this film, but may never watch it again because it was “so stressful.”

The DVD features audio segments by Patrick Macias explaining the historical context of The Blue Hearts. You can’t “Play All” of these segments and are forced to select each one and play it individually, which I found annoying. The audio is not accompanied by photographs or any visual elements. Although the segments are informative, the presentation is lackluster.

Like most of the other Viz Films I’m listing here, Linda Linda Linda is freaking heartwarming, but not in some obnoxious saccharine way. Even though it’s about an all girl band (or perhaps, because it’s about an all-girl band), this is still a film guys can enjoy. I mean, I’m a jaded hipster and all, but this movie touched my heart. Watching Yu Kashii and Bae Doo-Na act is like falling in love.

Train Man

I reviewed this film after watching it at a press screening last year. It’s adequately cute and charming, and a fine introduction the Densha Otoko franchise if you haven’t read the novel, read the translation of the 2channel conversation, read any of the four manga series based on the story, or seen the TV series.

Word on the street (from other podcasters) is that the real gem of the Densha Otoko DVD is the commentary by Patrick Macias. Macias fills in viewers with everything they need to know about Akihabara culture. I haven’t heard it, but apparently it’s hilariously great.

Kamikaze Girls (NYAFF 2004)

I plan to review Kamikaze Girls in more detail when I write about the book and Patrick Macias’s School Girl Inferno, since all three are Goth-loli must-haves, and really fun reading for normal people, too.

Briefly, I had heard this film was really great but missed it at the ImaginAsia theater and picked up the DVD back in January. The DVD sat on my shelf for couple of months and when I finally watched it I kicked myself for not having watched it sooner. It’s fast-paced, hilarious, and I hate to used the word “quirky” so I’m just going to say “awesome” instead.

Ping Pong (NYAFF 2003)

Katherine mentioned Ping Pong on this website previously, but I haven’t watched it yet. I borrowed it from a friend (Adan), and if the Viz Pictures track record holds true, as soon as I watch it I will start kicking myself for not having seen it sooner.

The New York Asian Film Festival

I’ve been attending the New York Asian Film Festival/Subway Cinema film series for years, and it’s amazing. I highly recommend it! For each screening Brian Naas introduces the film and gives away prizes from the festival’s sponsors. This guy is hilariously and amazingly great, and he even writes the Subway Cinema blog and weekly email - a great way to find out about every Asian film (including India), playing in NYC each week.

I was lucky enough to preview some of this year’s festival picks, and they did not disappoint!

DYNAMITE WARRIOR

It’s showing on July 5th at the IFC Center, check it out!

If you only see one film from Thailand this year, it’ll probably be Dynamite Warrior. I recommend Dynamite Warrior as a typical NYAFF experience; it has weird twists and turns, a bit of blood, some martial arts, and in the end you come away a better person for having witnessed the spectacle. I had my doubts in the beginning, but by the end Dynamite Warrior won my heart.

Dynamite Warrior is part revenge tale, part Western, part wizards fighting, and part firework-powered martial arts. In some ways it is reminiscent of Brisco County Jr., but with magic instead of technology and Dan Chupong instead of Bruce Campbell. The film is set in Siam circa 1910 (?) - remember the costumes from The King and I? A tractor salesman, Lord Waeng, is angered when the Thai people refuse to buy his extremely expensive technological marvel. Instead of considering the economics of the situation, Lord Waeng hires thugs to steal water buffalo from buffalo traders, hoping to force people to buy tractors.

Jone Bang Fai the “Fireball Bandit” rescues the buffalo and attacks the traders and thugs indiscriminately in an effort to find the wizard that killed his parents. The whole wizard thing isn’t introduced in the first half hour, so it comes as a bit of a shock that there’s magic involved. Nai Hoi Sing turns out to be a powerful wizard/buffalo trader whom no one can touch. The Fireball Bandit is hired by Lord Waeng to kill Nai Hoi Sing. Are you following this?

In action films the love interest often seems like an extraneous addition to the plot; not so in Dynamite Warrior! The Fireball Bandit needs the menstrual blood of a virgin in order to combat Nai Hoi Sing. Fortunately, the Black Wizard’s daughter makes for a convenient *ahem* blood donor slash love interest. This leads to the most humorous “Waiting for a virgin to menstruate” scene ever witnessed on film.

Nevermind the magic, this movie has a dude riding a giant bottle rocket! The Fireball Bandit has his own kind of martial art, involving fireworks and hitting people in the face with his shins. The best part is that this isn’t a gimmick - THERE IS A TOTALLY REASONABLE EXPLANATION for the fireworks. That alone should get you in the door to see this film.

Dynamite Warrior is everything I could hope for in an NYAFF viewing experience. The movie starts off going left, ends up turning right, and after a little violence you get a solidly entertaining movie memorable for its weirdness. I couldn’t ask for more. (Also one dude uses elephant tusks as weapons.)

GAMERA THE BRAVE

Gamera the Brave is screening for free at Japan Society on July 8th!

I’m not a Gamera expert. Going into this film I knew only the following Gamera facts:

1. Gamera is a turtle.
2. About one dozen Gamera films exist.
3. Gamera fights for the children.

There is also a really great Gamera song that children sing in early Gamera films, and a perhaps greater adaptation of that song as sung my the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Crew:

Garmera is really neat!
He is made of turtle meat!

Gamera the Brave may be the highest budget Studio Toho film I have ever seen. Perhaps by no coincidence it also contains the finest acting I’ve ever seen in a Toho film. In the Toho school of film most “acting” is usually left to the men in the monster suits. (Spoiler!) Gamera the Brave contains actual human drama! (And also monster suits. End spoiler.)

Except for some brutal monster fights, Gamera the Brave is a solidly entertaining children’s film. It is also a great summer action flick, since the film takes place over summer vacation.

Sympathetic protagonist Touro is about 11 years old and just getting over the death of his mother. Touro’s fry-cook single father just happened to witness Gamera’s last stand in the 1970’s, wherein Gamera blew himself up to save the nearby human town, leaving behind a single egg. Touro just happens to find that egg around the time fishing boats are being mysteriously attacked at sea.

If you’re like me, and you loved Destroy All Monsters because there was a baby Godzilla monster that was just sooooo cute, then you’ll really love Gamera the Brave. Touro’s egg hatches into an adorable baby Gamera, which he names Toto. Toto is played by an actual turtle, occasionally enhanced with CG, until he grows to be several feet across and is replaced by a man in a monster suit.

While Toto is still a small and super-adorable flying baby turtle the film compares favorably to a Toho version of The Mouse and the Motorcycle for a solid 40 minutes.

It’s all fun and games until Zedus starts attacking the fishing village and kills Touro’s friend’s parents. Zedus (presumably named by the media in the Japanese monster equivalent of a hurricane-naming scheme) is a fearsome beast who looks like a cross between the Muppet version of the nine-tails from Naruto and the poison-spitting dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Zedus also has an unintentionally humorous 15-foot-long purple tongue, poorly rendered in CG.

The only real irk I have with Gamera the Brave is that Gamera only fights Zedus in this film. Sure, you get a multi-monster flashback fight in the first five minutes, but I was kind of bummed that Gamera had only one opponent.

Touro and his buddies are evacuated from their town, and end up going to Nagoya to help Gamera win his fight against Zedus. There’s a really heartwarming scene of children running an impromptu relay race to give Gamera a magic/alien item he needs to win the fight - it brought a tear to my eye, but it’s also a little disturbing. Doesn’t this imply that Gamera has low-level psychic mind control over kids?

Gamera is not a bad choice out of the NYAFF picks. It’s more mainstream than Dynamite Warrior, but it might be a good intro to the festival for first-time attendees. It’s an obvious must-see for Gamera fans.

Anime and manga otaku will be psyched that both live-action Death Note movies will be playing in the NYAFF, with the director in attendance. I wouldn’t be surprised if these screenings are already sold out. This will be the North American debut of both films, despite many fans having seen them thanks to internet piracy. Viz Films will undoubtedly eventually distribute the DVDs in North America at a reasonable price. The Death Note anime series is still running and episodes are available for purchase in the iTunes store.

DEATH NOTE

Chances are you already know the premise of Death Note if you’re reading this, so I’ll be brief: Light Yagami finds a magic notebook that has the power to kill anyone who’s name he writes in it’s pages. Light immediately sets out to free the world of crime by killing every criminal he sees on the news; unfortunately, the police consider Light’s actions mass murder and call in the world’s greatest detective, known only as “L” to solve the case.

The real question is this: Will your friends who aren’t familiar with Death Note be able to enjoy this film? My answer is a cautious maybe; the CG for the Death God (shinigami) character Ryuk is a bit lackluster - he looks like he’s in a videogame. The plot is a little draggy and convoluted since it’s split into two movies. I’m not certain someone coming from a non-fan perspective would have the patience for it.

If anything, Death Note feels like a date movie. Light is played by hot young actor Tatsuya Fujiwara, and his girlfriend Shirori’s part is expanded for the film. There’s a tragic-death-romance ending that seems tacked on to win over… well, your date. It seems like a movie made by guys with some kissing thrown in so that girls will still enjoy it.

Although Misa Misa is a major character in the manga, she is mostly absent from the first film - her role is mostly regulated to her face painted on the side of a bus. L barely arrives halfway through Death Note; L fans will have to wait for the second film for hot, hot L action (see below).

Although a bit bland, there were some moments of Death Note that I enjoyed immensely. First, when Ray Penbar writes the names of the U.S. FBI Agents in the Death Note, the first name he writes is “Miles Fitzerald” which is clearly “Fitzgerald” with no G. I’m not nitpicking here - this was a dramatic name-writing scene with the name spelled out in close-up and the plot hinging on the written word.

Second, I found it extremely gratifying that Macs were used in the film only by good characters. L has a platinum PowerBook G4, (an upgrade from the Mac G4 cube in the manga) whereas Light uses only PCs. The FBI agent had a Thinkpad, but that Thinkpad was only used for evil! (I’m writing this on a Platinum G4 Powerbook, by the way.)

Third, there is a crucial zoom-in at the end of the film onto a bag of chips. It’s a bag of consumé flavored chips. Truly, a classic moment in cinema history!

Finally, I didn’t like the way that Ryuk’s feathery shoulder-pads were rendered in CG. Thanks to Monsters Inc. I know there are better fur/feather rendering engines out there, but I suspect that Death Note had about 1/12th of the budget of your average Pixar film. It may not be a fair complaint.

Overall, Death Note is way more accessible to the general public that Death Note: The Last Name, but I’ll explore that in a moment.

DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME

Death Note: The Last Name is not a good movie. It is not objectively good; nor is it accessible to non-fans of the Death Note franchise. Now that that’s out of the way; OMG I loved this movie!!!!1

The ideal viewing situation for The Last Name is a junior high slumber party. I wanted to eat ice cream and popcorn and break out into pillow-fights while watching this film. The plot is convoluted, sure, but this is actually a movie about watching two hot fictitious geniuses play out a game of symbolic chess against each other. Did I mention they were hot?

More fan-fiction fodder than film, The Last Name rehashes the second part of the Death Note manga, from roughly volume 5 on. Instead of the (spoilers) Death Note ending up in the hands of the Yotsuba corporation, an ambitious female new anchor becomes the next Kira. She quickly kills off her competing news anchor to advance in ranks as one would on a Klingon Bird of Prey. And if you know what I mean by that, you’re probably nerdy enough to watch this film.

The Last Name appeals to me in the same way that old Doctor Who episodes appeal to me; it is solidly cult with some camp thrown in. Watching the first Death Note movie is not enough to understand the plot of The Last Name; one needs to have read some of the manga or seen the anime to understand it. It is the same problem with pre-1989 episodes of Dr. Who - one must understand the franchise to get any enjoyment out of it. The camp element comes into play as L eats more and more sugary snacks in each scene. A normal person would scoff at such scenes, but to an insider this is pure fanservice.

Fortunately I watched the movie alone; otherwise my high-pitched giggling would be intolerable to others. If you’re watching this with an audience of fangirls you ought to know what you’re in for: Squeeing.

Mello and Near are not in The Last Name, and the movie is better off for it.

The best past of The Last Name is the ending. Rather than sticking strictly to the manga, The Last Name has a really good ending. It takes a little from the end of the books, but clears up the clouded plot and comes to a very satisfying conclusion (unfortunately drawn out a totally unnecessary epilogue scene). If you want to know more about the ending, read the wikipedia entry, because I’m not going to spoil it for you here.