Subjected myself to the Netflix Death Note movie for the first time, while I'm hyperfixating on the series again. Willem Dafoe voicing Ryuk is one of the only things I think I particularly care for. That doesn't mean I like DN'17 Ryuk (the Faustian bargain feels so weak when it feels like he's forcing it), just Dafoe voicing him. Similar feeling about L. I stan Lawliet, love LaKeith Stanfeild, doesn't mean i like the movie character. As for the rest:
-why is Sachiko fridged?
-where is Sayu?
-WTF is Soichiro's deal?
-what was wrong with heart attacks?
-why do they get rid of ppl touching the notebook seeing the shinigami?
-why is supposedly 4d level chess Light dumb enough to show Psuedo-Misa the notebook just because he's a lil thirsty?
-WTF is Psuedo-Misa's deal?
-Kira means literally none of the things Light says. Celtic is also not a language.
-the jingoism behind Light's international kills
-totally not surprised US LEO were big Kira fans from the jump
-what did the sex workers in the club slaughter scene do wrong, other than be sex workers?
-wtf is up with ninja L asking Watari to sing Wizard of Oz karaoke to him?
-the Raye Penber incident carries so much less weight
-fuck yea Phantasm
-I appreciate Light retaining some humanity, with the concern for his dad
-L's case feels so much weaker in this
-The OG rules were fun and compelling, the movie ones aren't
-emotional L crushes so much of my personal relation to the character
-i don't like ghost town Whammy's House. Assuming The Rochester in Rochester House means Rochester NY (judging from L reaching the NY field office), nothing even close exists. I grew up in the area and went in a lot of vacants. We would have found that.
-whats with the Bladerunner guns?
- L did NOT need to shove diner guy's face into his plate to parkour around
- L using a page? No.
-i hate it. I Hate It. I HATE IT.
About as seething as I expected, so can't exactly say disappointed. I'd rather rewatch DB Evolution, though. I assume all of these are very cold takes, but my body physically recoiled in reaction to exposure to this souless monstrosity. I know a lot of ppl hate on the '06 live action movies, but I'm so happy to be moving on to them.
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Netflix Death Note Rewrite
Summary:
I’m rewriting the 2017 Death Note Movie
This is the first in a series of Rewrites! Pretty much no one liked the Death Note Netflix Adaptation so I (an actual fan of the series) will try to rewrite the movie to actually make it compelling and competent.
First things first how long would this be? Ideally a mini series of 5-8 episodes maybe around 30 minutes each give or take. But let's say that we only have the original 1 hour and 40 minutes for a movie. Well we better make the most of it then.
~~~~
We open up on an old abandoned church busted pews, broken windows, and a cracked alter. The whole place furnished with old rugs and tarps to cover up the decay of the furniture, thousand of candles everywhere, maybe a mural on the wall of a brunette positioned in a stance with his arms out spread, welcoming the people, yet judging them at the same time.
"Light" Turner (still known as Donn Turner) stands behind the alter talking about Kira.
"Thank you all for coming to honor our savior. Kira the great god of justice, the god of the new world. I notice we have some knew attendants." Donn motions to a couple. Everyone looks to them and Donn motions them up to the front where they complete a ritual, something maybe to do with candles and ending in eating an apple.
After the ritual everyone leave except for a brunette girl named Mia. She comes up and kisses him on the lips, praising him and his sermon today.
~~~~
The original relationship was very stale and didn't have much weight put onto it. It was also very toxic and the two characters didn't have much in common. By making "Light" the leader of this cult and Mia his pre-established girlfriend in said cult it tells us a few things about these characters already.
A. "Light" is very manipulative, and charismatic, while still being the toxic bitch he was to Misa in the anime. B. Mia, much like Misa is very loyal, but she's actually less interested in "Light" and is devoted heart, body, mind, and soul to Kira (You'll get to see more of that later but essentially Mia is a flip of Misa. Misa was first devoted to the idea of Kira and then her devotion turned into an obsession with Light. Mia will be the opposite but right now that's a further plot-point). And C. This takes place after either the Anime or the Manga (though I'm leaning more towards the Mange because the epilogue of that had the set up to this, where there were Kira Cults.)
~~~~
The next scene Donn and Mia enter Lights home and his dad is there preparing takeout.
"Donny! Oh Hello Mia."
"Hello Mr. Turner."
"Do you want to stay for Dinner? Donn made the Honor role again and got a 100% on his recent science project. I ordered his favorite food as a reward! We've got a lot to celebrate!"
"No thanks Mr. T. I should bet home. My step monsters will kill me if I'm out past my curfew."
"Okay, see you at school tomorrow." Donn smiles and strokes her head. He kisses her forehead and she kisses his cheek.
"Bye love!" she smiles and walks out.
"Love huh? That's a bit soon considering your both still in school."
"Dad-"
"No no! It's fine she's a nice girl. I just don't want you to do something you'll regret,"
"I'm fine! I'll be in my room." He grabs a plate scoops some food onto it and takes it to his room.
"Wait I caught the Grim Angel today! Don't you want to hear about that? Donn? Can You at least take out the trash?"
"I will!" He slams the door. He then scarfs down the food and throws some garbage into the trash including a bag of potato chips. Then he goes to empty the trash. Once outside he throws the trash in the garbage can it starts to rain as a book drops right on Donn's head. "What the hell?" He picks it up and brings it into the house.
He goes up to his room and locks the door. "The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. No way, is this how Kira killed all those people?"
"Yes actually." Donn falls off his chair with a scream. Before him stands a big monster, 8 feet tall and looking like a demon. He had no eyes, and black fungus all over his body. His body itself was a ghostly pale and he had red flame like horns popping out the side of his head crackling and moving in a none existent wind. "Calm down! You have a father downstairs don't you. I'm sure he'll be worried if you start screaming."
"How do you know that? What are you?"
"My my. I thought a fan of our savior Kira would know a lot more about Shinigami."
"Kira? You're a Shinigami?"
"Yes... I go by Justice now."
"What does that mean?"
"I was human once. I was the most devout follower of Kira when we were alive."
"Teru Mikami."
"I cannot say. It is one of the rules."
"So why are you here?"
"I'm here to finish my work. I want you to kill off the remaining criminals."
"Why can't you do that yourself?"
"After the incident there was another rule in place to limit how many humans we can kill a year to just ten."
"Did you choose me? Is that how you know about my family?"
"Yes. I want you to become Light Yagami reincarnated, and for your precious little girlfriend to be the new Misa Amane."
The Shinigami "Justice" would then go on to push light into his first kill. He snuck into his dad's room and pilfered his brief case for the name of the Grim Angel. Damon Cher. Donn pushes him to escape custody steal a bike and ride onto the freeway.
"No one else should get hurt right? That's what it says on one of the rule pages."
"Correct."
About an hour later Mia sends him the news story via text that is identical to what he'd written down in the book.
"I'm a murderer."
"I thought that you were Kira's fan. Don't you want purge the world?"
"No! I just-"
"Lightling... if you don't do this I'll kill you and your girlfriend."
"Why me?"
"You're perfect."
~~~~
Okay that was a lot but it's all very important. Thing is... this is a sequel to the original death note and some of the themes I want to address are imposter syndrome and how you can't live in someone else's shadow. Spoiler alert but both "Light" and "L" are living in their successors shadows trying to live up to the expectation's of someone else.
I also needed to give a reason why Light/Misa/Mikami wouldn't just rid the world of criminals once they became Shinigami. While I could just wipe their memories that wouldn't really explain why a Shinigami would come to earth other than pulling a Riuk and just having them be bored.
(also yes I know Misa didn't really care about being Kira but she may still want to be with Light in the afterlife.)
~~~~
The rest of that night "Light" killed ten criminals; and the next day he confided in Mia.
"So Justice here is your Shinigami."
"Yes."
"And you and me have been chosen as the new Kira's."
"Yes!"
"Give me the book."
"What? Why?"
"Light sweetie, the book." she holds her hand out.
"Fine. But don't be stupid okay."
"Oh and by the way, heart attacks are so cliche. People are already catching on." She whispers and leaves him taking the book with her.
~~~~
I know people didn't like Mia being the assertive one but she doesn't fit the role of Misa either. This whole movie was flawed to begin with and through these changes you get a story about three people with a mountain of expectations thrust upon them. They aren't Light, Misa, and L. That's the point. If you want these three you should watch the Anime.
~~~~
A week goes by and the two have already filled ten pages through an assortment of different methods of death.
"According to recent chat logs the general populous think Neo Kira based in New York though a popular theory is that they're based out of Greenland. Okay hand me the book I'll start to focus there. draw their attention their."
"No. If we start to bring attention towards one area in particular it'll let people know that we're onto them."
"What does your dad think?"
"My dad thinks Kira is nuts. He and two other officers are apparently trying to catch Kira."
It's then we cut to James (Light's dad) as he enters his office and sees that it's been trashed. James sighs. "Arata!" A younger man appears.
"They got you too, huh sir?"
"Chief Turner! There's a visitor here to see you! He says he has information on the Neo Kira case." Another man comes over to see James.
"Thank you Philip, bring him in."
Philip goes and returns with an older man dressed in a trench coat and a fedora. He holds up a silver laptop and a fancy white L on a black screen appears.
"Chief turner! My name is L." A distorted voice cheers. "I'm here to offer my assistance."
"Why are you coming to me?"
"Because you're the only one who believes that Kira is back as well as being brazen and open that he is evil."
"What would we need to do?"
~~~~
You guys may wonder why I added two original characters. Arata is supposed to be a Matsuda stand in and Philip is just supposed to fill out the rest of the motif I'm working with. Chess pieces.
Light and L are the kings because they are both cowards that are spurred to make moves.
Mia and Watari are the "Queens" because they actually do physical stuff but have very little say in what actually goes on.
Arata is the Rook because I thought "Oh Rook. He's new he's the Rookie. Funny"
The name James has connections to the bible and God according to google. So Bishop because they also have connections to the bible and God.
And Philip means horse lover. That feels self explanatory.
~~~~
We cut back to Mia and Light chilling at home. They are watching the news when an emergency broadcast interrupts them. Several reporters are heard in the background.
"I'm sure you're all wondering who I am. My name is Landon Chef and I have been working with L on this investigation. It is in his expert opinion that these deaths are all coincidental. Kira is not back." The news report can be heard in the background as Mia and Light fight.
"Oh hell no!" She screams. She shoots up from the couch and grabs the notebook.
"Mia what are you doing?!" Light grabs the book.
"He's making a fool of us, Light. He's making a fool of Kira!"
"Don't be stupid! This is what they want!"
"Who care! Let's give them what they want!"
"Mia don't be stupid."
"No Light! We have to do this! For Kira! Kira is our god! He's my life, Light."
"Fine. Give me the book, I'll do it."
"I'm more than capable-"
"Give me the book! You want a new god of justice you'll get one! Now give. Me. The. Book."
She hands it over and he jots down the mans name.
Over in the police department the three men working with L look on in horror as their stand in dies. "I told you that they were in Seattle." L said over the computer.
Over the next few weeks the new Kiras continue to murder. The audience is greeted by a montage of the two killing people. Light writing down names and Mia doing the resaerch. We also see them back at their cult. Light starts to use his new name and Mia dies her hair blond.
Then back at the police department we see that the three men are preparing to meet L face to face.
"Hello Gentlemen. Please call me L. I'd prefer if we all used code names. After all we don't know what Kira is really capable of."
"Ehem." Watari clears his throat. "Don't give them to much lee way L."
"Sorry Watari."
"I'll be Rook. That's what most people call me anyways."
"Call me Kelpie."
"Chief." James said
"You can continue to call us L and Watari Respectively." L smiles.
"You probably want more sweets, don't you L?" Watari smiles but it's very clearly fake.
"No I'm..." Watari glares at L.
"...you know what? Sure."
~~~~
This seems a bit weird so but it would come up later in the story. I'm just going through a rough draft with some scenes to flesh out the story a bit. So basically this L is the fourth real L. This Watari was the third real L and was the successor to Near who died young. This Watari is very obsessed with the original L. So much so that he makes this new L dress like him (styling his clothes like how Near described him) and keeps him on the sweet heavy diet.
~~~~
After they meet L closes in on Mia and sends Watari to get information on her.
"And what's the purpose of that?" Philip questioned.
"Perry Ethan was found hanging from a tree with lacerations on his thighs and wrists. He didn't have a criminal record so I traced him back to where he lived and found out he's the step father of Mia Sutton. That’s actually how I found out where to trace the murders to.”
“You can’t go after Mia!” James protested.
“And why is that?” L asked
“Because she’s a good kid. She’s kind and caring and she’s kept my son out of trouble!”
“I’m sorry chief turner but Mia is our best bet at finding Neo Kira. If not her then someone close to her.”
“Does that mean my son’s going to be investigated.”
“If need be then yes. What would Watari say? Ah yes, he’s got a 42% chance of being connected to the murders.”
“I’m not going to sit by and watch as you accuse my son!”
“Then help us find Kira. If you believe that your son is innocent help us find other suspects.”
“…what would you have me do?”
“I need you to pull every file you have on the computer and put it on hard copy. The first Kira was the son of the police chief and he accessed classified documents through his father’s computer.”
“Right! You told us that a decade ago.” Arata said.
~~~~
Yeah so basically this Watari exposed Kiras’ identities and while most people were dissuaded from worshipping Kira. But as we know there were still small groups of people.
Mia is in custody and light comes to save her but she’s is just in holding and they haven’t officially arrested her. They have 48 hours to find evidence and arrest her or else she will be let go.
During this time Light and L finally meet. The next few scenes would be a cat and mouse chase. I’m kinda stupid and bad at writing that kinda stuff, so we’re going to skip that.
~~~~
Later on they choose to charge Mia and Light makes the very smart decision to mind control a criminal to walk into the police station and say that he (the criminal) is Kira and then control him to not speak for his stay at the police station. Eventually dying of a heart attack when he is let go.
L is still convinced that Mia had something to do with it so she remains in custody.
Light starts to panic as Justice implores him to write down someone in the police station. He chooses the clerk who writes in his own blood that he is Kira reincarnated and that Mia is a stupid mortal woman who had nothing to do with the murders.
Despite this L (with the help of Watari) convinces everyone that the Perry Ethan incident still links Mia to the case.
Eventually Light starts to kill people on the other side of the world and they have to let Mia go.
some stuff happens and Light and Mia argue that what both of them did was stupid and Light storms off in a fit of rage.
~~~~
I’m just going to cut to the end.
~~~~
In a fit of rage Light makes several criminals challenge L. Him and L meet and Light asks Justice for the Shinigami eyes. He writes down L’s name as L tackles him and quickly writes down his and Mia’s names too.
Everyone mourns. Everyone moves on and there’s no need for a shitty sequel.
~~~~
Okay finally thoughts, I know that it’s not perfect but I really have no idea what to do with this.
I would like to expand the concepts I have about L and Light living in each of their predecessors shadows and how Light both relishes the attention and fame and power but cracks under the pressure, and L trying his best and failing over and over and how he’s in over his head, then ultimately winning in the end with the killings finally stopping. This was his justice to claim, Lionel Morgan’s view of justice.
It’s bad but I wanted to preserve and expand upon interesting concepts that I don’t think were fully explored by the writers. The shinigami pushing light. Him and Mia having a messed up romance. L being emotional over the lives he’s loosing. Light looking for power but not wanting to be a full on serial killer.
Anyway constructive criticism and questions welcome in the comments section. I’m a humble Druid who enjoys the mysteries the sea has to hold and instead of saying goodbye I’ll just wave. (Get it?) 👋
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