DEATH NOTE

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Yu Kashii, Asaka Seto, Erika Toda, Shido Nakamura

Year: 2006

Rating: NR

(in Japanese with English subtitles)

I discovered one of my favorite films of 2008 by accident. Through my friend Larry (yes, him again), who is a fan of Japanese actor Tatsuya Fujiwara, I came across Death Note as the first title I found with him in it ... and promptly bumped it up to the top of my Netflix list.

Now, I watched it twice and have every intention of buying it as soon as possible. It's just one of those "well" films - well-made, well-acted, well-written, and even directed well - a truly original story that's engrossing as hell, through two hours and six minutes and right up to a conclusion that ... well, we'll get to that later.

Tatsuya Fujiwara plays Light Yagami, a Japanese college student who's just passed the bar and is well on his way to a career in law. He seems to have everything - good looks, a loving sister and parents ... even a pretty, very smart girlfriend, fellow law student Shiori (Yu Kashii). But Light's problem is, perhaps, that he's a bit too smart; he's basically a loner, very quiet, maybe even a big smug about himself. Worse, he's recently been second-guessing his career choice, after hacking into the protected database of the local police academy and learning just how many murderers, rapists and thieves actually go free on a daily basis, whether it be from lack of evidence or an overturned trial or what have you. Shocked and appalled by the lack of effectiveness of the very laws he's been studying so hard to uphold, Light even goes so far as to track down a freed killer at a local dive of a bar, where he hears the guy bragging out loud about the kid he killed and how he got away with it. Observed listening by the young killer and his thugs, Light is himself threatened - and flees the bar when they let him go, his reverence for justice and the law shattered.

And that's when, while standing in the pouring rain, he finds - simply lying there on the ground - a thin, black notebook with the simple words "Death Note" printed across the front. Inside the slim book is sheet after sheet of blank, lined notebook paper - though the two pages in the front of the Death Note, labeled "How to Use It", tell Light more than he needs to know ... and something he refuses, at first, to believe.

For anyone whose name is written in the Death Note will die. Simply write their name, and within forty seconds that person will die from a heart attack, right on the spot. Write their name and how they will die within six minutes and forty seconds, and that's exactly what will happen. All you need is the person's name ... but you must also know what they look like - have their face envisioned in your mind as you write their name, which prevents anyone from having the same name from dying, as well - otherwise it won't work. As Light reads the instructions, laughing nervously about how ridiculous it all is, a news story breaks on TV about a captured killer. When Light looks up and hears the name and sees the face of the suspect, he jokingly jots it down in the Death Note before going to bed ...

And the next morning, when he sets down to read the paper at breakfast, the first thing he sees is that the man whose name he wrote down died in his jail cell the previous night.

Freaked out, soon after this Light meets the Shinigami (god of death), called Ryuuk, who was the one responsible for leaving the Death Note in the street for Light to find. The quick-thinking, highly intelligent Light is, at first, sure there is some horrible price to pay for the power behind the Death Note - that perhaps Ryuuk wants his life or soul in exchange for it - Ryuuk not only assures him that there is no "price" for owning the Death Note ... but that in fact Light can give up possession of it to another, any time he wishes - and in fact, if he does so Ryuuk will even erase all memory of the himself and the Death Note from Light's mind. Light does, in fact, keep the Death Note, and Ryuuk (an ugly-as-heck CGI creation with huge batlike wings and about 700 shark's teeth) almost becomes like a companion to Light for the rest of the film (no one can see or hear him unless they've touched the Death Note).

So Light decides to use the Death Note to pick up where the law failed, and one by one - in rapid succession - he begins killing off both incarcerated and at-large criminals and suspects, not only in Japan but all over the world. One by one the guilty (or suspected guilty) fall, and soon an underground movement begins, and people (especially young people) around the world have dubbed him "Kira" and named him the new messiah of justice. Soon Kira discussions are the hottest search topic on the internet, with hundreds of discussions boards and websites going up to both condemn and praise the mysterious messenger of death ... as the crime rate around the world begins to fall.

But power corrupts, and soon Light sees himself as the very savior and messenger of justice that a good deal of the public has made him out - as Kira - to be. But he learns quickly that Kira's followers are not all fans, as even his own little sister and girlfriend see Kira as nothing but a mass murderer who is only keep crime down out of oppression and fear. Even the police, baffled by where to even begin finding Kira to arrest him, eventually seek the aid of a renowned Japanese detective, the mysterious "L" whom no one has ever seen, to aid them in their search for Kira. Speaking only through a laptop, with the help of his elderly servant Watari (Shunji Fujimura), L quickly proves himself to be the intellectual equal of Kira - by immediately tricking Light into revealing that Kira lives within the Tokyo area. As L helps the police to get closer and closer to Light (who can't do a thing about "L", as he doesn't know the guy's real name or what he even looks like), Light continues to learn how to manipulate the Death Note to strike back or protect himself however he must ... even as his God complex grows, and he becomes less and less humane. The tension builds, more than just criminals begin to fall, and the ending finds Light and L meeting face to face, in a quiet scene that sets up a sequel this reviewer didn't know existed ... and had me running to the computer to try and find.

I love this movie. It's got everything going for it, is a tense thriller without the gore that has enough twists and turns in the plot to satisfy a pretzel maker. I'm a full-on fan of Tatsuya Fujiwara's now - and forever a fan of this brilliant film. Yes, the CGI-affect Ryuuk may not seem 100% realistic to many - but that, to me, didn't hurt my getting into the character, or his clever scenes with Light that deftly share some of Light's thoughts and reasoning for the viewer. The cast is top-notch, the film itself very well-directed and made. If I could afford it, I'd buy everyone I know a copy of it on DVD for Christmas - that's how much I liked it - and to me just the originality and cleverness of the story (yes, based on a popular Japanese manga and anime series) are what put the film ahead from the beginning. I can't say enough good about it, and not only love the film's message - that power does indeed corrupt - but also the mental debate it sets up in your mind: is Kira a savior, an angel of justice - or simply a mass murderer, himself deserving death? It's a film that makes you think, and God knows we need more of those in the movie business today. ***** - Reel Must-See

(NOTE: Stay tuned, after the film's end credits, for a trailer of the sequel, Death Note: The Last Name! Also, a USA version of this film is slated to be made and released in 2010 - a huge mistake, as this film is so purely Japanese in tone, story and characterization, it would surely be ruined if turned over to the Hollywood machine. See the original!)