Death Note Travelling Around Asia...8 Locations Announced

It has been confirmed that the blockbuster live-action movie Death Note, directed by Kaneko Shuusuke, and adapted from the 14 million units-selling manga also titled Death Note, will also be released in 8 Asian countries and locations. At the Cannes Film Festival, over 50 film companies, including Western ones, rushed to make offers for it. This includes Hong Kong's own major film distributor, Golden Harvest, who has completed negotiations to distribute it.

As the world has flown to acquire Death Note, distributors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand, almost 40 companies total, have made trips to movie creator Nippon TV's booth day after day. For a Japanese film that wasn't even finished yet, that didn't even have previews, this buying interest was extraordinary.

This interest in the movie can be partially explained by the Death Note manga’s steady increase in popularity throughout Asia as it's translated into different languages. The movie's two stars are the lead character Yagami Raito, played by Fujiwara Tatsuya (24), who can make people die by writing their names in his notebook, and the genius detective 'L', played by Matsuyama Kenichi (21), who heads up the investigation. The first part of the Death Note movie will play in June, with the second part playing in October.

The buyers from each country, who were shown a five-minute long promo video, said that 'the feeling of the original was preserved', and that 'they're glad because 'L' was true to his character in the comic.' Apparently the movie's faithfulness to the original was its final selling point.

Golden Harvest, a large distribution firm that handles Jackie Chan movies and distributes films in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, has completed their negotiations for the movie. The final price was not made public, but the acquisition of both parts was twice the original price from Nippon TV. A Thai firm has also completed negotiations, while 2 Korean firms are currently in negotiations. In addition to these four countries, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are also planning to have the movie released. The first part might be released as early as this summer in eight countries. Buyers also came from European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and in total, it seems that the movie may be released in as many as 15 countries.

Translated by lijakaca
Proofread by Firedog