“The human whose name is written in this note shall die…”
No manga series has truly hit the big time until it’s got at least a TV adaptation, whether live-action or anime (or sometimes both), and preferably also drama CDs, character song CDs, light novels, visual novels, video games, and miscellaneous “character goods”. But it’s relatively rare for a manga series to be adapted to a live-action feature film, especially for manga with supernatural elements. This makes the DVD release of Death Note (the 2006 live-action adaptation of the phenomenally popular manga series) particularly interesting. How faithful can such an adaptation be? And how well does the story work in live action?
The answers are “more than you might think” and “surprisingly well”, respectively. The film-makers didn’t feel a need to tamper with the story much, perhaps because Death Note has such a strong central concept – the notebook that kills anyone whose name is written down in it, the crusade that the notebook’s owner embarks on to rid the world of criminals, and the cat-and-mouse game that ensues when the police start trying to hunt him down. The film only adapts the first nine chapters of the manga; there have been two sequels covering later storylines, not yet released in English. Some of the plot details are different, even so – though if anything, they’re improvements on the manga; the introduction of two new female characters and the expansion of the role of Naomi Misora is highly welcome, since one of the manga’s weaknesses is its paucity of interesting women. In other ways, the manner of storytelling has been changed to fit the new medium: where the manga depended a great deal on thought bubbles and narration, the film naturally opts for punchier, simpler visual exposition, which has the odd side effect of slightly softening the character of Light: he seems less calculating in the film, if only because we’re not constantly being told what he’s planning.
Although, that said, a certain amount of the softening comes from Tatsuya Fujiwara’s performance. Fujiwara has an open face and a ready smile that makes it hard, at first, to think of him as the cold and sociopathic Light Yagami of the manga. As Light uses the Death Note more and more, and graduates from killing vicious murderers to killing people who get in his way, he smiles less and less, and during the train sequence (very faithfully adapted from the manga) he finally displays the cold, triumphant grin most often seen on the manga Light’s face.
Fujiwara aside, one of the most striking things about the film is how recognisable the characters are: as soon as there was a glimpse of the police unit investigating “Kira” (the codename for the owner of the Death Note), I could immediately pick out Matsuda, Aizawa, Ide and Soichiro Yagami, before a single word had been said. Naomi Misora, Watari, and L are likewise uncannily true to their manga incarnations. As with the manga, the film kicks into high gear as soon as L appears. Ken’ichi Matsuyama is perfectly cast as the eccentric but brilliant detective who comes close to rooting out Light’s secret.
But perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the film is Ryuk, the shinigami (god of death) who drops the Death Note into the human world and follows Light around to watch what he does. Ryuk’s ghastly, clown-like appearance is rendered in CGI, and while there are occasional moments when the animation doesn’t quite work, for the most part he’s utterly convincing; he moves that little bit more fluidly than the human characters, floats around weightless, flies on his bat-like wings, and passes through solid objects, but still looks just as real and just as present as the live actors. Shido Nakamura gives Ryuk a deep, gravely voice that likewise marks him out; it’s not surprising that Nakamura was cast for the same part in the Death Note anime.
As both a stand-alone film and an adaptation, Death Note works remarkably well. Its faithful without being slavish, transferring both the narrative spine of the manga and the dark, tense atmosphere that makes it so compelling to read. I enjoyed it a lot, and I look forward to the English-language release of the sequels.
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