My thoughts on the movie...
Since I've been discussing it a bit in comments spawned by my last post with the scans, I've decided to share my thoughts on the Death Note movie that I've seen two weeks ago when it came out here in Japan.
In the movie, Light is already in college when the story starts. He has this girlfriend, Shiori, who is, in my humble opinion, a stuck-up, self-righteous bitch. Believe me, I like Misa a whole lot more than I do her. But anyway, other than that, it follows mainly the story in the manga. The ICPO meeting is the police station instead. Watari is visible very early on. L remains hidden a while longer.
I had a hard time seeing Fujiwara Tatsuya as Light, seeing as, like most of us, I had a definite image of what Light looked like (I'm talking as a real person, not as a manga, of course). In retrospect however, he did play the role very well. And what I liked the most about him was his voice - a soft, calm voice, a little throaty, just... purrific. I think it's weird but aside from the haircut, which is a little off, the only thing that bugged me about his physical appearance was his very square jaw. It seems however, that whoever designed the scenes was aware of that and so many camera shots were meant to hide his jaw, either behind his collar, his shoulder, or things like that.
Although I've said it follows mainly the manga, the thing that was a little different was the fact that this Light was much less careful. He got the notebook out and wrote in it in public not once, but twice. Also, one of the man he killed to prove to himself the autenticity of the Notebook was someone he had had an altercation with and had told Shiori about. Definitely something Light would never do. He wrote in public, yes, but usually was a little more subtle about it. And he would never have killed someone he had told someone else about.
The scene where L comes in is exactly, and I mean, exactly like in the manga, from the scratch to his leg, to the "bang bang, you're dead" before hoping on a chair in this weird sitting position of his and starting to munch on sweets. He did not, however, write on the table. X3
Follows the camera scene, with Light and his consome flavored chips with the mini-TV inside. The bus scene, with Ray (his mustache made him look so gay. XD) who has a Japanese name I forget at the moment to make him a half Japanese to explain his asian looks. I was amused to see the model on the advertisement the bus was Misa, who's actually a well reknown model in this version before she meets Light.
The scene with the killing of the FBI agents is in the subway instead of the Yamanote line, but is still pretty much the same, except that Naomi, Ray's fiance, followed him and gets to see him die.
Then the story veers a bit from the manga as Naomi tries to pin Light as Kira, robbing us of the highly intelligent and thrilling conversation between the two we have in the manga.
The next part is kind of a nightmare for me as Naomi kidnaps Shiori to get to see Light kill her on camera and thus prove that he is Kira. Follows a very intense dramatic moment (e_e *gag*) of Light screaming his innocence and Naomi daring him to kill her and even giving him her real name, telling him to kill her to save his precious girlfriend. Sirens approach, the police are coming, and Naomi looks away one second so Shiori escapes to Light. Naomi shoots, Shiori protects Light, falls and dies. Light starts screaming, holding her and everything. Shiori Naomi, realizing she made a mistake, shoots herself in the head just as the police storms in.
Next scene finds us outside the building, with Light sitting on the steps, head burried in his arms on his knees. He looks the part of a grief stricken young man, but then he turns to look at Ryuk and his smile!!! I nearly melted right there. Makes the previous horror all worth it. He knew Naomi's name (how he did you'll have to see cause I have to run to work) and got her to kidnap Shiori, kill her and kill herself. His father arrives and appologizes for intervening too late and Light asks him if he can join the investigation team. L appears (finally) before Light and chief Yagami asks him to appologize and leaves. And then L very carefully gets a bag of consome chips from behind him and chomps on a few chips, while Light and he get lock in a staring match. And then, to be continued in the second movie.
It was a long movie and there was more talking than action but I liked it anyway. *zooms off to work*.
In the movie, Light is already in college when the story starts. He has this girlfriend, Shiori, who is, in my humble opinion, a stuck-up, self-righteous bitch. Believe me, I like Misa a whole lot more than I do her. But anyway, other than that, it follows mainly the story in the manga. The ICPO meeting is the police station instead. Watari is visible very early on. L remains hidden a while longer.
I had a hard time seeing Fujiwara Tatsuya as Light, seeing as, like most of us, I had a definite image of what Light looked like (I'm talking as a real person, not as a manga, of course). In retrospect however, he did play the role very well. And what I liked the most about him was his voice - a soft, calm voice, a little throaty, just... purrific. I think it's weird but aside from the haircut, which is a little off, the only thing that bugged me about his physical appearance was his very square jaw. It seems however, that whoever designed the scenes was aware of that and so many camera shots were meant to hide his jaw, either behind his collar, his shoulder, or things like that.
Although I've said it follows mainly the manga, the thing that was a little different was the fact that this Light was much less careful. He got the notebook out and wrote in it in public not once, but twice. Also, one of the man he killed to prove to himself the autenticity of the Notebook was someone he had had an altercation with and had told Shiori about. Definitely something Light would never do. He wrote in public, yes, but usually was a little more subtle about it. And he would never have killed someone he had told someone else about.
The scene where L comes in is exactly, and I mean, exactly like in the manga, from the scratch to his leg, to the "bang bang, you're dead" before hoping on a chair in this weird sitting position of his and starting to munch on sweets. He did not, however, write on the table. X3
Follows the camera scene, with Light and his consome flavored chips with the mini-TV inside. The bus scene, with Ray (his mustache made him look so gay. XD) who has a Japanese name I forget at the moment to make him a half Japanese to explain his asian looks. I was amused to see the model on the advertisement the bus was Misa, who's actually a well reknown model in this version before she meets Light.
The scene with the killing of the FBI agents is in the subway instead of the Yamanote line, but is still pretty much the same, except that Naomi, Ray's fiance, followed him and gets to see him die.
Then the story veers a bit from the manga as Naomi tries to pin Light as Kira, robbing us of the highly intelligent and thrilling conversation between the two we have in the manga.
The next part is kind of a nightmare for me as Naomi kidnaps Shiori to get to see Light kill her on camera and thus prove that he is Kira. Follows a very intense dramatic moment (e_e *gag*) of Light screaming his innocence and Naomi daring him to kill her and even giving him her real name, telling him to kill her to save his precious girlfriend. Sirens approach, the police are coming, and Naomi looks away one second so Shiori escapes to Light. Naomi shoots, Shiori protects Light, falls and dies. Light starts screaming, holding her and everything. Shiori Naomi, realizing she made a mistake, shoots herself in the head just as the police storms in.
Next scene finds us outside the building, with Light sitting on the steps, head burried in his arms on his knees. He looks the part of a grief stricken young man, but then he turns to look at Ryuk and his smile!!! I nearly melted right there. Makes the previous horror all worth it. He knew Naomi's name (how he did you'll have to see cause I have to run to work) and got her to kidnap Shiori, kill her and kill herself. His father arrives and appologizes for intervening too late and Light asks him if he can join the investigation team. L appears (finally) before Light and chief Yagami asks him to appologize and leaves. And then L very carefully gets a bag of consome chips from behind him and chomps on a few chips, while Light and he get lock in a staring match. And then, to be continued in the second movie.
It was a long movie and there was more talking than action but I liked it anyway. *zooms off to work*.