Guilty Pleasures #44 - L: Change the World

You may remember I’m not huge fan of the Live Action Death Note Movies

Yes, that one too, but we’re focusing today on the Japanese ones. Whilst they’re mostly faithful adaptations, the pacing is far too fast, and it ends up pulling shortcuts that I ultimately didn’t end up liking. That said, I probably was a bit harsh, it could’ve been the Netflix one.

But what happens when the same crew don’t have a source material to adapt? What if they’re taking a popular Death Note character and doing something entirely new with him? Well, you get L: Change the world

In the second Death Note movie L managed to outwit Light by writing his own name in the Death Note before Light could. Not sure if I ever remember it being established what would happen if someone’s name was written in 2 separate Death Notes but I digress…

This is claimed to be the final chapter in the Death Note Saga but it really is more a spin-off, it lacks Death Note in the title, doesn’t feature any prominent characters and the only plot point that matters is the aforementioned ending to Death Note 2. Let’s see if this change is style works for them.

We open with a character named Naomi being watched by someone on a Laptop, she breaks into an abandoned warehouse and it’s revealed L is watching them somehow. Yeah, these scenes act as a prelude to the Death Note movies. I’m going to skip over this because I already spoiled the ending and large amounts of this don’t really matter. In fact you could well argue this is all entirely fluff.

The opening titles are intercut with scenes from those movies but it doesn’t exactly give you a rundown of the plot. 120 days later, in Thailand a convoy of trucks arrives in a village that looks to be in a bad way. Given that the crew are all in hazmat suits I presume it’s some kind of virus. They basically ignore the people as they conduct their search, and take a blood sample from one of the survivors. They way they’re treated it’s clear these are the villains.

Meanwhile, one of the less infected people runs up a hill and finds a boy doing… something I’m sure. Also, for some reason this scene is English, I don’t know why, they’re not in England, they’re in Thailand. The boy is a child genius, the hazmat guys spot a plane flying overhead and move out as the entire area is bombed, presumably to prevent the spread of the virus or eliminate witnesses, it’s a bit unclear, none of the hazmat guys have a line to clarify.

They spot a truck moving north, the boy genius and the survivor, he tells the kid to call Watari’s number, whilst he is basically dead as the ‘soldiers’ aren’t looking for survivors or witnesses. The kid demonstrates he has a pretty good memory. The truck is attacked and we can see the survivor was infected and is beginning to display symptoms. He drops the kid off in a slow scene that is kind of out of place in the middle of the chase sequence, he gives the kid a necklace and drives off to his inevitable doom.

Turns out the guy I named the survivor is F, another of the super-secret detective guys L is a part of, I think. They need to assign someone to take over the case, and this causes L to begin to begin his endgame with Light. OK, and they don’t reveal his first name in this, that’s a bit stupid. So, he has 23 days to live.

We cut to the Asia Infectious Disease Centre, because of course there’s only one of those in the whole of Asia and we’re introduced to another kid, Maki, her father is Professor Nikaido, as he’s addressed by Dr Kujo, who seems intrigued by some weird homework Maki was doing. Maki is sent away as Professor Nikadio and Dr Kujo head to another floor, an area guarded by a code, thumbprint and retinal scanner. We see Dr Kujo get in a hazmat suit and I’m not sure if the lack music is budgetary, stylistic, a trend or just there to give an eerie atmosphere to it all.

They have the virus from Thailand in their lab, and have been asked to examine it, it’s derived from the Flu and Ebola, ie this virus a genetic hybrid of two viruses. It’s deadly and spreads quickly and appears to be some kind of weapon. But a virus needs an antidote to be effective (Huh?) and virus has mutated in the last 20 hours to beyond the cure’s ability to, well, cure.  

Thankfully we skip past the actual end, minus the death of Watari, and we see L ready to burn both of the Death Notes with Ryuk and damn that CG is not great, no wonder the Netflix one kept him mostly in shadow, L ignores everything he says and burns them. The books scream for some reason, not sure why, he then sends message of Watari’s passing to other members of the group, including K, who he was a bit reluctant to send it to

Cut to Blue Ship Environmental group because this movie seems antsy and has trouble, at least at this point keeping the plot focused. It’s a bit all over the place. We’re introduced to Mr Kagami who gives a pretentious speech about nature because the movie’s villains are environmental terrorists who basically plan to kill off the world’s population. He basically fires his henchman for daring to try and sell the virus. He takes it well, stabbing the guy in the back and taking over the operation himself.

With 19 days left until L’s death, he has a massive assortment of cases that he burns through in a montage. He goes this for 5 days until the kid from earlier manages to get a coin from a local to call the number he memorised, the number gets him through to L. The kid is transported to a hospital and L is watching, the doctors examine him and take blood samples all whilst L watches creepily in the background.

He’s completely fine despite the village being infected. Which means either one of two things, he either has the cure, or he’s a carrier, and I’m gonna guess it’s the former given the medical examination. The boy leaves with L, who doesn’t really know what to do with him. The kid immediately goes for a corner and sits in it. L offers him a sweet kebab but the kid seems to prefer crisps, which L conveniently has also. The kid eventually gives L the necklace, which contains a memory card.

Back with Maki she’s talking with her teddy and thinking about her probably dead mother. Her father comes in and asks that a serum and injector is delivered to someone. You can see he’s probably going to be joining the mother of his child very soon. He calls Dr Kujo as he wants a word, but she immediately calls someone else.

L retrieves the files from and we get some exposition from F about the case, and someone he thinks is involved. L quickly reads up on viruses. Meanwhile, one of the terrorists murders a security guard for no real reason and the terrorists begin killing everyone in the lab, Nakaido has worked out that the virus was created in their lab, and if you didn’t get the hint earlier, Kujo is working with the terrorists.

She’s worked out that he has successfully created a virus antidote, he deleted the data on the antidote and incinerates what remains. Maki is watching from behind a corner as the terrorists threaten to kill her if he doesn’t stop the programme. Instead he takes off his hazmat suit and injects himself with the virus, all whilst Maki watches. It’s quite a graphic death too, this is the first scene in a while and it does enhance the scene. Kujo activates a button that incinerates everything in the room and Maki is still f*cking watching. But it does get a little silly when he starts clawing at the window.

Maki runs away and finds a convenient policeman to take her around to the addresses in the memory card. Thanks to some contrived writing, Kujo works out that Nakaido told her to take it to Watari. It’s revealed here that Kujo is K, she immediately contacts L who decides to wear a toy mask because… L agrees to meet her and exchange details on her position, but sends her a map rather than giving his address outright. L notices a reflection of the terrorists in the background of the shot. I’m glad he put two and 2 together here.

So, the injector does indeed contain a sample of the virus and not the antidote. Why? Because someone with both the virus and the antidote would be invincible. This really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, unless it can somehow penetrate a hazmat which we’ve seen that it can’t, you just distribute the virus wearing one, or use some other method of delivering it that isn’t personal. Maki actually begins to process what she saw and cries until she realises it’s 8.00 and she has to stick a thing in her ear. OK…

So, the other kid, who’s name still eludes me comes and comforts her, they both cry together. The terrorists manage to break into L’s HQ. Kujo tries to run but is immediately confronted by Kujo. She has the virus and threatens to inject herself with it and she actually does it, then shouts to Kujo that she saw everything. L comes out and drags her away

They take an emergency exit with L basically having to drag Maki until they’re confronted with a man from the FBI, the cop from earlier, who somehow isn’t infected. They have a van to escape in, one for Angel Crepe. L uses computers in the van to remotely wipe his systems, although the concern of the terrorists is that since Maki had the virus and not the antidote there may not be one at all. The group are called Blue Ship, we did establish this earlier but that is really cr*p name. 

L decides to stop and take the two kids on foot whilst the FBI agent diverts attention away from them, this ignoring the fact that Maki is essentially a carrier right now and could infect anyone she comes into contact with. L is fine because of the Death Note and the other Kid is fine because he’s immune but anyone else, INFECTED!

L looks at some sh*t in a market, with the other kid (yes, he’s not named until the end, we’ll get to that) obsessing over a slot machine robot thing, as the FBI agent is a victim to reverse racism? L manages to make a gizmo from stuff bought in a market. L has worked out that the virus isn’t affecting her. OK… that explains something but you don’t know that’s permanent as far as you know, the antidote is destroyed. Turns out that Maki has been injected with something that halts the spread of the virus, unfortunately Kiro is beginning to work this out too.

L knows that whilst the virus is dormant it’s no harm but he needs to get her far away to prevent it spreading whilst it does become active. He’s ready to accept his own death at this point, even though it’s still 6 days away. He asks another favour from the FBI agent, he’s a decoy again as they take the train. L is taking them to see a guy named Kouichi Matsudo, someone Maki is familiar with. Kouichi and her father were the writers of the book L was reading.

Unfortunately, Dr Kujo has changed tact, announcing Maki’s infection on the news so people with their very low-rent phones can witness it. L takes them off the train and begin cycling instead. The Japanese police being quarantining and disinfecting the station they got off from. It was absolutely necessary to keep cutting back to that as L and co cycle away, and by that I mean it adds a few more seconds to the run-time.

Maki begins to tire from all the cycling as Blue Ship get impatient trying to track her. L finds that he’s been locked out of his computer network. It’s also revealed here the FBI agent was sent to recover a Death Note. A pointless task but does explain why he appeared at random. We cut back to L, Maki and the other kid near the river. L is bent over, Maki is writing in her notebook and soon they all begin staring at the other kids playing in the river. Also, you’re not very conspicuous there, you know, those kids are likely to have some adult supervision nearby.

Cut to ‘YOU BASTARD,’ would’ve been nice to get some context for that before the fact but… Ah, he’s telling L what I was mentioning earlier, that going into highly populated areas with someone who’s infected is stupid and not really befitting of L. L ignores him, Maki takes a shower (and yes we get to see that) and notices a symptom appear, which she soon shows to the others. L shuts the other kids out but it’s soon realised it’s only a tick bite.

To save her they need an antidote, which is what he hopes Professor Natsudo can concoct. They bribe their way into a lab and the professor takes blood samples and begins analysing them. The other kid begins drawing on the blackboard. And there’s music again, but I think that might largely because the fan drowned out their raw audio. It’s a while before there’s any spoken dialogue, and once there is the music stops so I presume the fan is off.

Anyway, turns out Maki has low blood sugar and for this reason the virus isn’t spreading through her as fast. I’m not expert but I’m calling bullsh*t on that. Unfortunately, removing the sugar in the body would likely kill it as well so that’s not an option. The other kid has finished his drawing and begins shouting the answer. I’m not convinced about this kid, I have a feeling he was supposed to be shouting 13: 11 in English (certainly sounds nothing the Japanese pronunciation of those numbers) but he pronounces 11 more like ‘drivel.’ L takes a look at, and deduces its message M K, it was derived from Maki’s homework thing, so L takes it as a message and it’s soon discovered that Midkine may surpress the virus. I’m not going to argue the science of that so let’s move on.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult, if not outright impossible to synthesise, but L theorises the other kid may have high levels of it and that’s what’s causing his immunity to the virus. So, with the conflict resolved, it’s time for a picnic on the roof… I guess… Time for things no-one really needed to see L doing, having people remark on his diet and straightening his back. Here’s 5 minutes I’m not getting back. I guess it’s a fine enough quiet moment before things start to pick up again

Maki has decided to run off to a boatyard because she is this kind of stupid. She has a butterknife she thinks she’s gonna use to kill Kujo, who she’s lured here because she’s really that kind of stupid. She’s captured, Maki…

  

L runs to the boatyard but unfortunately he’s too late, only finding her bag. L has deduced they plan to use Maki as a carrier, and urges Professor shoutypants to continue working on the antidote. The other kid seems to know something leading the professor to giving L a syringe of antidote that he’s made but isn’t tested.

The FBI agent decides to show his face again as he and L head off in the crepe van. L has deduced that with Maki, they’re going to convince Blue Ship that the antidote is made and proceed with spreading it. Smuggling Maki aboard a plane as a medical patient and then high-jacking it, taking it to America.

And so they begin to do, with plenty of disposable extras for L to save, L reveals to the FBI agent that he burned the Death Notes and thus ends that subplot. The captain reports that the plane can’t take off because of a suspicious vehicle on the runway and yeah… it’s L and the FBI agent. Kujo begins her plans early, infecting a couple and grabbing guns out of the operating table. We see that Maki is displaying signs of infection, Kujo is more than happy to die for the cause. A flight attendant that was infected begins stumbling about and falls onto more passengers, infecting them too. Two of the Blue ship agents manage to take the cockpit and prepare for launch.

L manages to launch himself through the conveniently open door just as the stairs are knocked over by the wings of the plane. He stumbles in but he’s soon captured, he claims his bag is full of antidote, a claim we’d think would be false given the last scene but nope, it just does. Police arrive but randomly one of the passengers I think grabs a baby and threatens to kill her and then keels over and dies from the virus and what just happened?

And it’s revealed Kujo has one of those dumb as hell plans to wipe out humanity and start over and I wish I gave a cr*p. The pilot dies from the virus and causes the plane to turn off the runway and head straight into a terminal. Apparently this is part of L’s plan to have the virus crash into the water and be harmless… L, crashing the plane into a terminal could cause the virus to spread. Oh yeah, and it uses a mcguffin he created from bits at a market earlier. Never knew taking control of a plane would be that easy.

Kujo begins to keel over from the virus, but since he’s gonna die soon, L wishes for her to carry on without him as Watari’s wish, a bit late seeing as she literally murdered someone. He injects the antidote into her but that plane is still about to crash. So as they distribute the antidote, L stops the plane from crashing into the terminal. Maki sees her chance with a convenient dagger, L stands by to watch and it’s enough to get her to stop.

So the hijackers are arrested, everyone’ else is vaccinated and oh look, the kid arrived just in time to do nothing. L emerges from the plane unharmed because his death is still 2 days away, and thanks the FBI agent for driving, and that’s it. As for the other kid… wait a few more minutes, we’ll get to him. Maki wakes up to see her bear again, the FBI agent tells her it was a gift from L. The bear now has a message from L too.

L takes the other kid to whatever colour gradient they used on this school. It looks f*cking dreadful. So, the other kid’s name, L calls him Near. Near is a significant character in the Death Note manga/anime, being one of the two to take over from L after his death, and the one who ultimately defeats Kira. This is a cute reference but little more than that, he doesn’t have the personality of Near, nor is his intelligence given any purpose beyond doing calculations. I don’t know what he contributed to the final plan.

After giving Near the toy he was entranced by in the market, L walks off into the gradient pretending to be a sunset and that ends the movie.

So that was L: Change the world. It’s ok, maybe even below average but for me it’s a significant improvement over what came before.

By that I mean the pacing is far improved. By telling its own story, it doesn’t have to mash plot points from the Manga and it feels less intensive to watch because of this. It does also give it some more breathing room to allow its characters at least a moment, like that scene on the roof. If I did have a criticism on pacing, it would be the opening which tries to give you too much information too quickly.

Beyond that I do have story and character issues. Whilst it was interesting to see L on the move, thrust out of his comfort zone, he’s primarily a detective and this isn’t a mystery. I feel this is massive missed opportunity given that the ending was definitively going to be L’s death, the countdown to it wasn’t really used to up the tension, another misstep in my eyes.

The plot does have holes and the villains aren’t that interesting, I think the script could have done with another draft or two, just to iron those problems out.

When it comes to acting, it’s difficult to judge because of the cultural barrier but some of the delivery seemed off to me, lacking in emotion that should’ve been present in the scene. The kids are passable, Mayuko Fukuda as Maki has a bit more meat to her role and is the better of the two whilst the kid who plays Near gets next to nothing.

The cinematography and editing are basic, almost amateurish, but nothing is egregiously wrong with anything I saw, aside from whatever those colour filters were at the end.

L: Change the World isn’t quite the send-off L deserved but I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised

Rating -24%