another ultra-back dated entry… if i’m getting too lame, just tell me ‘tolong!’ and i promise i’ll stop.

Genre: Manga, comic
Rating: ***/*****

‘Death Note’ is a film adapted from a series of highly successful manga. It features the theme of ‘vagrant justice’. An initially well-meaning teenage high achiever chances upon a note book. ‘Whomever who’s name is written in it will die’. Plus a whole host of instructions detailing time and nature of death. It even allows scheduled deaths (just like my blog!) It bestows upon it’s owner, the power to govern another’s life and death. Islandwide, criminals start dropping like flies, dividing the nation into a state of panic (the police department) and unadulterated pure adolation of this ‘Kira’ (impressionable kids and the general law-abiding public). Enter L, another weirdo, who pits his wits against Kira, in a battle to see who would win ultimately. It’s not so much a race to weed out this self-proclaimed hangman, but a race to see who is the smartest.

Manga? Comic? Movie? It’s hard to tell. The human characters act as though they walked right out of the pages of the comic. Perhaps it’s the Japanese style of filming, as I’ve noticed similar exaggerated cool stances (designed to make little teenage girls swoon) and that artificial glint in the eyes, in a Jap drama featuring a teacher with revolutionary teaching methods. The manga character, serves oddly, as a form of comic relief. I would have expected an evil character to allow humans free reign of their newly-given godly powers; and yet have hidden cards up their sleeve. Apparently not for this devil. It’s cute as can be, and seems to care for nothing except his apples.

Do not expect passionate romances, heart-wrenching plots because this is, after all, adapted from a comic. Expect however, an exciting, breath-taking trip down a world of fantasies, of brilliant twists in the plot and surprises.