The latest story to spin-off the highly-popular Death Note franchise, "L : change the WorLd" focuses on L Lawliet (played beautifully by the talented Ken'ichi Matsuyama) on his last 23 days. This time, L faces the challenge of yet another difficult case after the highly suspenseful one with Kira. And without Watari around, things are trickier than ever before...
A group of extremist environmental terrorists, consisting of a psycho mastermind, a greedy psycho dude and their psycho henchmen (the psycho girl is cute though) are determined to save the world by getting rid of humans through a hybrid virus and with various complications along the way, L is faced with a battle against time to both stop the terrorist AND save the world. Two children hold the key to solving this case, a young nameless Thai boy and Maki (played by Mayuko Fukuda), a young girl with more secrets than you'd expect. It's somewhat a psychological thriller, but also an action-packed one that has lots of great moments. Worth noting is that it also shows scenes of L before he came to Japan and also how he handled the temptation of using the Death Note.
L : change the WorLd plays quite differently from the previous Death Note movies, and shows a side of L we haven't really seen... which is his human side. It shows how despite all his quirkiness (L fans, there is much to be happy about, as candy-munching, crouching and squatting are all intact) and obvious lack of expression, he's still just human after all. I believe viewers will connect with his character more throughout this movie. And yeah, I'm amazed that he has a funny side too. Another pleasant surprise was young Mayuko Fukuda who plays Maki in this movie. You might remember her from "Nihon Chinbotsu aka Sinking of Japan" This adorable girl's really talented, and she acts as if she's been doing it forever. You can actually feel her character when she cries or smiles, she's a natural. This is one talent to watch in the future. Despite what you see in the poster, Ryuk and cute Misa have only short cameos this time around, and Light (aka Kira) appears in only a short clip. But believe me there is already lots to enjoy in this movie, with many new characters (including a really funny FBI dude) getting screen-time alongside L.
In my opinion, it's more moving and meaningful than the previous two Death Note movies, with many touching scenes, over-the-top comedy and the acting is rather top-notch. A good watch and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, and even though it can stand on it's own as a movie, I'd say it'll be more enjoyable if you've watched "Death Note" and "The Last Name". And I believe you'll agree with me, that upon finishing the movie, you'd wished L could have had a chance to live longer.
And for goodness sake, stay after the credits. It's annoying how some people leave the cinema as soon as a movie finishes...
Trailer:
Video Link
3 comments:
Sometimes I really do wish I could indulge myself with plenty of chocolates and candies everyday like L without worrying about getting diabetes or gaining extra weight.
Lucky eccentric fella.
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Hahaha... yeah, chocolates are lovely... if only :)
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