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I remember talking to Shusuke Kaneko the day news broke that Hideo Nakata would be taking on this film. At the time it seemed hard to exactly fathom how they would approach the material but little doubt that as successful of hits as the Death Note films were that it was inevitable that there would be infinite numbers of knock off related feature films and anime. L: Change the World turned out to be one very strange action movie where it seemed the lifted the character of L into more of a routine save the world studio action film. It felt like a really strange fusion of James Bond and Death Note with a killer and hilarious final airplane sequence (more from Mark Schilling and Rodney Perkins).

I met Hideo Nakata at the recent NIFFF film festival. I mainly talked to him and his wife, as well as compared notes on the Nobuo Nakagawa (Lady Vampire was my favorite of his shown) retrospective going on as well as we all wanted to greatly see Adrift in Tokyo.

Related Coverage:
::: Interview I did with Hideo Nakata on L: Change the World
::: Interview I did with Hideo Nakata (Part 1) – Twitch
::: Interview I did with Hideo Nakata (Part 2) – Twitch
::: Interviewing Xavier Gens, Hideo Nakata & Jesus Franco on Remakes – Twitch
::: L: Change the World Movie Wallpaper #1 (Cinema is Dope)
::: Detroit Metal City Movie Wallpaper (Cinema is Dope)
::: Death Note: The Last Name Movie Wallpaper (Cinema is Dope)
::: Death Note Movie Wallpaper (Cinema is Dope)

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Image Source:
Official digital that was used in its original international release.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

Now I do see a lot of people trying to imitate Ken’ichi Matsuyama as L. However, what many seem to miss is the precise way he holds a cup of coffee (or drink) as shown above. So just note to self this posture/pose is a must for your L repertoire.

Related Coverage:
::: L: Change the World Japanese Poster Artwork

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Image Source:
Official digital still that was used in the original international release of the film.

Related Links:
::: IMDb Profile

You might have already read Udine highlights Japanese viewpoint by Mark Schilling at Variety Asia, where he mentions this years selection of Japanese films at the Udine Far East Film Festival. Seems interesting they have in a lot of ways come full circle with having Hideo Nakata back this year, from previously showcasing his Ring trilogy to his latest effort focusing on the character L. Advanced word I’m hearing on this film is incredibly lackluster. So it seems like his recent effort and overly empty Kaidan, that he is in a bit of a funk.

I believe technically it’s the 11th year for Udine this time around, though officially they have it as their 10 year event spectacular and are throwing out all the stops for a grand celebration. I certainly will miss not attending it this year, especially not getting to see its strong showing of Japanese films.

Eiga Chirashi = mini poster/flyer’s from Japan

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Image Source:
Official still used in the original Japanese poster artwork for this film.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile