Change the WorLd in 23 Days

Just watched L: Change the WorLd. So do I want to talk about it?

Actually yes. XD I mean, I've read discouraging reviews of it and still wanted to go, and without much expectation I actually enjoyed it quite well.

Eng Wah put the title as "Deathnote Spin Off: L Change The World", which disoriented me a bit when I tried to find it among titles starting with 'L'. Maybe they did it to make it recognizable as part of Deathnote... like, how many would actually know who L was if not tied with Deathnote?

Hum, that was random. At first I thought the title "Change the World" was quite 'out of it', like the way Japanese songs include irrelevant English words in their chorus, or something. A one-letter title may not be very identifiable, so they need a subtitle, I suppose? (I remember my own confusion with the J-rock band called "X".) But as with "The Last Name", I think it suits the plot pretty well after all. And I like it that this movie still maintained that "God of the new world" theme in subtext.

Was that random again? Anyway... so the movie wasn't much about wits. The climax was indeed quite run-of-the-mill, at which point I checked my watch for the first time. In my opinion it was more about Watari's importance to L, which is a good point to touch on. They deliberately drew attention to the letter 'W' in the title, too. But L being the way he was, I didn't see much of the emotions, and the heart-clinching moments I did feel was probably due to the all the background I already knew.

So... in the end it was like, one needs to know Deathnote to enjoy it, and yet it lacks all the brainy stuff that one likes from Deathnote. (I actually prefer to think of this as a movie by itself, the manga-purist that I am. Besides, L was a strong enough character to grow out of the series.) But come to think of it, the post-L Deathnote saga feels quite like this -- that is, more of the field work. (Somehow I compare this to the thinking part and the implementation part of my own research work.)

The little girl was really lovely and acted well. Her character was to my liking too (i.e. the opposite of a damsel in distress). The English-speaking characters were, erm, not preferable to be speaking English... even L. But his Spanish(?) was pretty smooth in my ears, maybe because I didn't know that language at all. XD

I don't remember if Agent Suruga has been in the Deathnote movies (i.e. the two actual Deathnote adaptations, because, as I said, this one is not Deathnote to me) but I just feel his sudden appearance lacks explanation. As he proceeded to be the comic relief, we see the purpose, but... yeah. Anyway, he was entertaining. Don't care much about the rest of the supporting characters, and in fact, the villain kha-kias were of the pointlessly violent, brainless, 'bundled' variety that I couldn't stand.

L himself was still a charmer. At least we fangirls would love the liberal serving of his adorably dorky scenes to gush at -- can't speak for others heh. Though, hm, rather sorry to say this, but I'm still not struck by Matsuyama Kenichi's charm outside of this role. (Eka said he looked old in the DramaWiki photo (indeed), so I linked to ThePPN instead.) And I'm starting to think that he gets this role working out so well exactly because he is not that prince-like type of actor. By 'prince-like' I mean someone like Takki or Kimutaku or, well, Prince. XP Though somehow the dorkiness doesn't seem to shine bright enough elsewhere...

...Yeah, now you know the kind of influences I'm subjecting myself to recently. Surprisingly though, among this bunch of teen pop idols there are some that I consider pretty good musical findings, like this Kansai group who sang really interesting songs:

Kanjani8 - Naniwa Iroha Bushi



Glad to know that for all the good looks, at least one of them does have impressive vocals. I say at least because I haven't recognized all of them yet... I say, why so many people in boybands who rarely sing more than one vocal parts? XP But Hady explained that it was to trap more fans across wider tastes, and I suppose I'm indeed victim to such a scheme, true enough.

Hum, jump of topic, but if I really try to tie this in, another one of the Kanjani8 boys is the guy who (sort of) gets the girl MatsuKen (sort of) dumps in Ichi Rittoru, so there. =D