Fatal Attraction

Good news for the nerds who can’t find escape from always being bullied, for the heartbroken emo kids who don’t have to slit their wrists, and for the office people who just can’t take their hard-to-deal-with bosses. This is your perfect chance to take revenge. Here comes the Death Note to remedy all your hypertension and headache to every whammies who’ve been cursing your life to death. But how does it work? Well it’s as easy as A-B-C. You just have to write their names on the notebook and after a few seconds, their hearts will beat like crazy and die. Ooh! Interesting eh? Wanna know more? You can also customize how you want them to die like you’d want to let them dance the ocho-ocho non-stop until they run out of breath or give them flying abilities and let them soar up the stormy sky and be hit with high voltage electricity. Whatever you want to happen, it will come true since your wish is the Death Note’s command.

Unfortunately, someone has already owned the Death Note and the lucky name goes to..(drumroll!) Light Yagami!, a university law student who abhors crime and corruption in the society. Until one night, he discovered the Death Note which was owned by a shinigami (Japanese death god) named Ryuk. With the aid of a private system of an intelligence group in Japan, he was able to track the records of every notorious criminals and wrote their names on the Death Note. He became known to the public as “Kira”, the savior of mankind, the protector of the oppressed and the superhero of the generation (’though he have to hide his face for his own security). The massive death of these law-breakers alarmed the International Police Organization who eventually sent one of the world’s best detective “L” to investigate on this mysterious case. At the latter part of the film, Light finds himself in conflict with “L” and the rest of the investigation crew as his identity was slowly unveiling. Desperate to keep his secrecy, he even plotted the death of his own girlfriend Shiori through the power of the killer notebook.

One thing that makes me a sucker for the movie is the weirdo detective himself “L”. His unbelievable critical thinking skills and his out-of-this-world mannerisms, (like his addiction to sweets and squatting, his way of holding objects with un-clawed fingers pointing upwards and his lowly posture) showed how cute guys could become “aliens” too. Like me*. Kidding. But what’s best about the film is that it teaches us that there is no such thing as a perfect society. There will always be people who would lose their way and would try any means, even taking anyone’s life, just to fill in their shortcomings and fulfill their short-term desires as well. In the film, Shiori was furious about Kira’s heroic impact on the minds of the people. She thought it’s unjust to kill those criminals without undergoing due process in which I strongly agree since I believe these people have the right to defend themselves and are entitled for a humane and just treatment before the law. Hammurabi may not feel me when it comes to this but I guess, humanist as I am, there’s always a corresponding reason in every situation we partake, behind every actions that we do, and in every decisions that we make. Having control over life and death means having no life at all since life is all about celebrating one’s existence and not deciding the limit of it. The power of the Death Note created the monster in Light’s being. In the following sequels of the movie, Light’s aggression towards his dream of a New World Order led him to murdering anyone who tried to stop him from doing what he wants, and that includes his own father. Could you believe that? Just a reality check. We may learn things the hard way but the only teacher that would best teach us with our discretion towards the life that we have and the death that will about to come is the realization of the fact that we’re not born in this world to have our lives controlled by others but rather live our lives the way we want it to without stepping on other people’s lives. That’s what I think is right. But overall the film was great. I really had fun watching every scenes, every cat-and-mouse chase, and every tear-jerker drama. Kudos!