Watch the director's previous films, especially The Guest, to get a feel for his style. It could work in greater context.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
First official clip from Netlfix's Death Note - Light Meets Ryuk
- Thread starter jack_package_200
- Start date
Watch the director's previous films, especially The Guest, to get a feel for his style. It could work in greater context.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
Yup. Lights first kill in the manga, he was flipping through channels thinking who should die, and just wrote down the criminals name in disbelief. He wasnt even to sure of the notebook to begin with, originally laughing it off.
In this scene, Light thinks he's dreaming. He might not be aware of the gravity of his situation until after dude gets his head severed.
Also, do y'all want Light to be an asshole or not
the original anime (I can't speak toward the manga) very early on answered the question of "is Light wrong?" Yes, he's wrong as hell, and is clearly a megalomaniac. the drama is seeing how he'd go about his unilateral murdering while LMN were hunting him down.
the anime never honestly struggles with the moral perspective that maybe this asshole with a god complex is actually a good thing, because L is immediately positioned as having the moral authority.
so it's not like the movie changing Light's personality is a betrayal of a "the greater good" angle.
It's a take I wanted from the original. At least the idea of it getting into the hands of a nobody, or your average kid. I mean I love most of the original, but it's a nice take so far.
Yeah, this made me laugh. I was expecting something like "heart attack", but nope! Decapitation! It was especially strange since he seemed so apprehensive about it prior and then quickly went full-on psychopath.
As mentioned though, I'm definitely going to give this a watch for Dafoe's Ryuk, seems like a really cool adaptation of him.
Lights and Waves
Member
Dafoe is perfect. Everything else...scheiße
Well, to be fair, manga Light kills "Lind L. Taylor" for basically taunting him.
I always saw manga Light as simply having a messiah complex and seeing himself above everything, but he was always just a step away from basically just being a petty killer. Just look at how desperate he gets during the events with Naomi Misora.
Granted, none of that necessarily applies to this Light.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
Also you guys keep forgetting that whilst Ryuk never pushed Light to kill anyone, Ryuk did do Light favors and would keep pushing him to get Eyes, to the point where during his encounter with Naomi, Ryuk just laughed and laughed giving light the hint that she didnt give him her real name.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Gonna go out on a limb and guess that the reason Light chooses something as gruesome as decapitation here, is that he doesn't actually believe anything will happen.
jack_package_200
Banned
Thats my take as well.
lightskintwin
Banned
This was my take on it.
Baroquemantic
Member
That was a really good clip. This needs to hurry up and drop.
Imperial Bishop
Banned
Nothing wrong with Ryuk being charismatic, but it sucks that Light has to lose his charisma and smugness in this adaptation.
I want to see how they handle both characters when the movie releases.
Taking half of Lights life benefits him though. Dude was a scholar and in super good shape, he was probably on track to live well past 80. Ryuk only cared about himself and being entertained.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Yeah, turning Ryuk into the instigator is a... strange choice.
Now that I think about it, Light is literally the bullied real life high school student that carries around a fake Death Note with pretty fucked up deaths, but somehow hasn't gotten suspended yet.
Same. Ryuk is pretty much playing into Light's belief that this is all a dream.
Killer Queen
Banned
Ryuks face is a bit chubby but outside of that it looks great
Inkvoterad
Member
I forgot the dude who did The Guest and You're Next was making this. I suddently have hope again. With experience of his earlier stuff, i'm really hoping for the director to just flip the entire thing on itself and do some crazy ass twists. Im kinda hoping for him to instead of making him the handsome school-elite genious sociopath, make him the type of edgy shitlord loser that would think Light was the coolest dude ever.
Like a straight up middle finger towards the chuuni part of the fanbase, would be so good.
Like a straight up middle finger towards the chuuni part of the fanbase, would be so good.
Imperfected
Member
They did a really good job making Dafoe look less cartoonish.
I think they put a blue filter on his face.
Some dubious shit going on with the changes to the moral alignments given Ryuk's "Come on, do it Spider-man!" antics but it seems like it might be entertaining. I hope they don't make him an "evil" presence. His moral ambivalence is part of what makes him a fun character.
That being said, is he always going to be shit out of focus or mostly in shadow? Part of my enjoyment of Death Note was seeing a horrifying gothnerd creature do mundane shit. The juxtaposition was high-llarious
That being said, is he always going to be shit out of focus or mostly in shadow? Part of my enjoyment of Death Note was seeing a horrifying gothnerd creature do mundane shit. The juxtaposition was high-llarious
EmCeeGramr
Member
I wasn't even necessarily saying it was worse, I was just saying that Light's character is a major part of the story's tone and themes, and making him outwardly what he always was deep down changes the tone dramatically.
It's changing Light into the kind of kid who read Death Note and legitimately admired Light, which is an interesting idea, but I wonder how well that actually works in practice.
edit: also as others have pointed out, Ryuk is completely amoral in the source material but even he gets surprised by how ruthless Light can be and his only stakes in Light's success are entertainment and apples, so having him actively try to push Light into it changes a lot
It's changing Light into the kind of kid who read Death Note and legitimately admired Light, which is an interesting idea, but I wonder how well that actually works in practice.
edit: also as others have pointed out, Ryuk is completely amoral in the source material but even he gets surprised by how ruthless Light can be and his only stakes in Light's success are entertainment and apples, so having him actively try to push Light into it changes a lot
Ryzaki009
Member
"trying"? Ryuk dropped the death note for a laugh. He was always an evil bastard. He was just more hands off before.
Uhh, yes he was. That's one of the defining tropes he has in the manga.
Yeah this is really bothering me.
Dafoe is great, but this scene already has the characters doing things they wouldn't actually do, if staying to to the source.
Kinda turns me away tbh
BronsonLee
Member
My god y'all are being ruthless to DaFoe's appearance
I wonder how far up they'll go in the series, far enough that Misa shows up?
I wonder how far up they'll go in the series, far enough that Misa shows up?
Ryzaki009
Member
He was one of the main points of his character was how someone so pleasant and charming was a psycho all along. It gave a really interesting contrast to L who in comparison was repulsive and rude but for all his faults was less of a shit than Light was (barely mind but still).
Dead Prince
Banned
i mean. would you believe it would be true? he's already seeing a demon in front so he may as well play along. could be an elaborate dream of his.
Misa is in it. She's the cheerleader from the trailer.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
This is the direction they should go for. Like 100%.
There was nothing pleasant or charming about him. The guy he pretended to be was as boring and bland as humanly possible. Like what was something that he did that was genuinely charismatic? Because it certainly wasn't the way he ate potato chips. Or having good grades.
It kind of does feed into a western idea of sin as a temptation from an outside source. Whether that's a bad thing or not depends on how it's handled.
Yes.
I don't know about charismatic, but Light definitely knew how to play and trick people. He was a trustworthy person. Hell didn't he head the police department?
I wouldn't really call him evil, he was a death god that got bored and decided to spice things up by dropping his notebook into the human world. He just wanted to see what would happen if someone picked it up and used it. He's a god, it doesn't matter to him if bad things happen to humans.
I like to refer to that as "serious humor," since the authors use that term in Bakuman and even use an example from Death Note to illustrate it. But yeah, it's pretty amusing, but also probably not going to show up here since they're probably going more thriller with this. The apples will probably be the extent of it.