Death Note / Death Note - The Last Name

Japan 2006, 126 + 141 minutes
Dir. Shusuke Kaneko
In Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: [M] contains offensive language & nudity
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Suspense/Crime / Paranorma, Deviltry

Feat. Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Erika Toda, Yu Kashii, Shunji Fujimura

Aroview: High-concept and precocious in attitude, this absurdly drawn battle-of-wits, based on a cult Manga, concerns the discovery of an occult notebook which kills those whose names are written between its pages.

Resolving to rid the world of evil, a high school student uses the Death Note to cleanse society of its criminals and murderers, though soon gains a god complex and is corrupted by the book’s power. Pitted against a teenaged detective, their cat-and-mouse pursuit sprawls across two films – best viewed back-to-back for a sustained suspension of belief. Puerile, cartoonish, but undeniably fun, with an addictive, nihilistic hook in the spirit of BATTLE ROYALE.

NZ International Film Festival 2007