I don’t care if it’s “whitewashing” and I don’t care that they changed his last name from Yagami to Turner… I’m just excited to watch this live action adaptation of Death Note – one on my favorite anime/manga of all time.
The original was about a super-smart high school kid who finds a notebook dropped by a “shinigami” … which is more or less a reaper, or god of death. Anyone whose name is written in the pages of this notebook dies… if a cause of death is written also, it will happen just as written in the pages. This high school boy uses this opportunity to become a vigilante – writing names of criminals to purge the world of evil. Which does sound nice… till you see what having that kind of power does to a high school kid…
This live-action adaptation is different for a few reasons:
The main character has been changed a bit, from a super smart teen with a normal life – to a bullied teen…
The original main character was named Light Yagami, but this version has cast an American actor (Nat Wolf) and renamed the character renamed Light “Turner.”
From the trailer, this adaptation looks like more of an action movie than the original psychological thriller. I don’t remember a Ferris wheel ever getting destroyed in the original, or any car crashes, but whatever. Explosions are cool.
Despite the fact that there are “purists” out there who are a little butt-hurt over the casting, I think it’s gonna be amazing. Yes it’s true the original featured characters that were intended to be Japanese, but why does it matter? It’s not like it’s based on a true story or anything (obviously).
Also something I have to point out… Willem Dafoe will be playing the part of Ryuk the shinigami… and his face looks so much like the original character sketch, minus the nose (cuz Ryuk doesn’t have a nose.) His Green Goblin performance is enough to tell me that he’s perfect for this role. Watch the trailer below for Death Note, live action coming to Netflix August 25, 2017!
