The Death Note Live Action Films

Death Note I and II

L Change the World

Madman Entertainment

Web: http://www.madman.com.au

R4 DVD

L Change the World is the follow up to Death Note I and II, both of which achieved phenomenal success around the world. Death Note in itself has caused quite a pop cultural frenzy with an animated series, Death Note figures and collectables and of course, three live action films. There are lots of sites dedicated to the series and it has become a real cult favourite.

Death Note I and II focused around Light Yagami, a college student who while studying law becomes disenchanted with the lack of justice he sees around him. In his disillusionment he finds a book simply called "Death Note." Inside this strange book is a list of rules and regulations on how to cause people to die unnaturally. This book is a vehicle by which the Shinigami (God of Death) intervene in the human world.

It seems this book can not only cause heart attacks, but bring about various forms of death and even manipulate people’s behaviour prior to death and time and place of death itself. As he comes to comprehend the ramifications of the power he holds in his hands, Yagami decides he's going to make the world a better place by eliminating those people who do harm to others i.e. criminals. However, as he begins to kill, taking the name Kira, be becomes a cult hero and the police and authorities are on his tail. As Kira becomes better known throughout the media and internet Yagami becomes seduced by the praise he is now receiving and it is not long before he is killing those who stand in his way just as fast as those he believes to be criminals. As the “cat and mouse” game continues, Yagami becomes more and more corrupted by the power he possesses, a special team (including his father) are investigating Kira and hot on his trail. The emphasis in the first film is on the battle between Kira and L, a detective trying to catch him. Both are young, alienated and well, a little strange. The use of the Gods of Death are superb and their anime look intruding into a live action film gives it amazing fantasy feel. The film climaxes when a second God of death drops a further death notebook and things become more complicated.

The sequel explores the cat and mouse game between Kira (Light Yagami) and L, a detective trying to catch the killer. Now with a second death book things become more complicated, as the second killer is captured new tricks must be considered to avoid being caught. This film is a quite a lot longer (over 2 hours) and explores a fascinatingly complex tale of power and betrayal, mixing together a supernatural thriller and a solid detective drama.

We get a lot more detail about the Gods of Death who are tied to the Death Note books and indeed the film has a far darker view of humanity, even the Gods of the Death note how heartless and vicious humans become when they gain power !!!

Both of these films really focus on the nature of power and have a strong presence of the various “death gods”, the third follow up film, while impressive, has a very different feel. It focuses on L and his battle against bio-terrorism. But nothing is quite as it seems the terrorists have been infiltrated by someone who is simply intent on using their organization and the virus they possess to make money and hence the battle between idealism and greed becomes a major theme. K, an operative of the L organisation, is also a major character, she has become seduced by the extreme ecological method and believes that most of humanity must die to save the planet.

This third film explores the dangers of misplaced idealism and how it can lead to terrorism. While it focuses on L and his cat and mouse game against the terrorists the Death Note phenomenon is really left behind. There is only one appearance by one of the Shinigami and the book itself places little to no significance, except, that as a background motif. It is used to kill Warati and L puts his own name in it so he can guarantee his lifespan to defeat the terrorists and then the story continues pretty well without any of the motifs of the earlier films.

While L Change the World is an impressive action flick and the violence and action has certainly increased a lot over the first two films, it lacks the cerebral content of Death Note I and II. It many ways it has been dumbed down and reduced to a simple detective and action drama using the Death Note characters and story as a background.

L Change the world is not a total disappointment, it shows a lot more of the humanity of L and explores his exploration of life in preparation for his impending death. Indeed, it could have been called the last 23 days of L ! In the earlier films L was more like a intellectual super hero, detached from life and using technology to solve crime – a sort of supergeek if you like. In this film he begins to explore his humanity as the date of his death comes nears, does he actually die ? We do not know – perhaps there is room for another film !

The storyline is interesting and even at two hours it certainly keeps your attention. It can be enjoyed as a standalone film, but if you have seen Death Note I and II the nuances and references do give it a little more depth.

Even if we view L Change the World primarily it as a detective type action film, it is still a highly successful one. There is lots of character development and it is quirky and strange enough to make it vastly superior to the thrash Hollywood produces under the name of action or detective films !

It is just a shame that it was no further exploration of the Death Note universe that was created in films I and II.