A death god's magical notebook turns a Tokyo law student into a vigilante in this original Japanese spin-off from the hit manga series. Part supernatural psycho-thriller, part social commentary, the ingenious though overlong tale sees idealist Light (Battle Royale's Tatsuya Fujiwara) become power mad when he realises that he can kill people by simply writing their names in the titular journal. The subsequent cull of criminals forms a gore-free footnote to the main action, as the slow-paced events focus instead on the deliciously twisting battle of wits between Light and his chief pursuer, the oddball teen super-detective known as L (Ken'ichi Matsuyama). Both Fujiwara and Matsuyama are perfectly cast, radiating cult-cool throughout, but it's the CGI-rendered God of Death that best captures the source material's dark playfulness.

Light Yagami finds the "Death Note," a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to create a Utopia by killing the world's criminals, and soon the world's greatest detective, "L," is hired to find the mysterious murderer. An all out battle between the two greatest minds on earth begins and the winner will control the world.