Why aren't the Japanese live action Death Note films better known? For that matter...

Why aren't the Japanese live action Death Note films better known? For that matter, why is Japanese live action cinema so obscure? Is it because English speaking audiences hate movies that aren't in English? Is it because they're not marketed heavily enough?

It's because Japanese movies have a "cheesy" stigma. My sheltered Southern Baptist college roommate once asked me on behalf of his parents, regarding The Ring, which I had enthusiastically told him about, "is it like a Godzilla movie?"

Dunno. When I do try to watch them they are always really fucking hard to find. I watched the Ao Oni liveaction movie recently and it had some creepy moment although the CGI is awful, as is always the case in Japanese live action stuff.

Who the fuck is that even supposed to be? I don't remember them from the manga.

The visual effects work in Death Note 3 is pretty exceptional, I have to say.

looks like a girly sidoh

They're not from the manga. The live action Death Note films deviate pretty heavily from the manga, not that that's a bad thing, and by the third film it's years later with new characters.

The female Shinigami Arma is attached to the death note that Ryuzaki, L's successor, possesses. Typically, she dies writing someone's name in the book to protect him. Not that it actually helped all that much because Ryuzaki's name had already been put in another death note days earlier. He was working on borrowed time.

Because Japanese films suck dick these days. The only director I'm aware of who has more than one or two good live action films who's still making stuff is Takeshi Kitano.

You have to understand, there isn't really a consistent adult theater audience in Japan. There is no reason to try to make films that don't appeal primarily to teenagers or families. Video rental dying out has only made things worse in this area. Their best adult material these days is late night televised anime.

In the 50s-60s however they were literally making the best movies on the planet at the time. This is well known, and many still hold up to this day.

Neat

i no next to nothing about this series but it looks like a moth and silent hill wiki taught me that moths are a symbol of death in japan so maybe its the god of death or something

Japanese movies are made for their own market and not for international release.

the deathnote movies and other adaptions are low budget and only really exist to complement the source material. other movies are kinda hit and miss and are really only for the domestic market.

It goes way deeper than these films being in Japanese. One of the best films of 2014 was an Australian science fiction thrilled starring Ethan Hawke named Predestination. It made 4.3 million dollars at the box office. That's absolute peanuts. If this had been an AMERICAN film, with a huge American company pushing it, it would have made hundreds of millions of dollars. People don't watch films that don't come from major American companies. It's as simple as that.

Japanese films are like Australian films, but with the additional barrier of audiences that refuse to watch films with subtitles.

I watched this movie and it felt it was a remake of the earlier movies. The plot twists were seemingly rehashed.

The gintama movie was a better mainstream jap movie. It was actually funny.

Gintama resonated really well with Chinese audiences, which gave that film a welcome boost. But unfortunately it may as well not exist in English speaking countries.

Japanese cinema is 'obscure' because it's pure trash now. Unless you mean the old films, to which I say, uh have you seen any of the average general population watch films that aren't color or new?

>Japanese cinema is 'obscure' because it's pure trash now.
And American cinema isn't?

And yet the movies have a better ending to Light's story than the anime.

Most American cinema is obscure.Look at how many films get made a year. I have to say that obscure doesn't always equal trash, that's not what I meant to say.

Death Note is an extremely difficult story to make a sequel to. It's much safer to just go with L vs Light. Even the Netflix version went down that route, with mixed results.

We get at least a couple of good films a year out of the Hollywood machine, and indie films have been getting better and better since 2010. Can't really say the same for the nips.

yeah that is one change I like but the movies aren't all that good

>Most American cinema is obscure.Look at how many films get made a year.
Those films are near universally exported around the globe, though. Heck, something like the American Ghost in the Shell was quite successful internationally. The Japanese Ghost in the Shell would never enjoy that kind of success.

I know multiple people who consider themselves film buffs that won't watch movies made before the 70s.

If you mainly export trash, be prepared to be compared to trash.

>I know multiple people who consider themselves film buffs that won't watch movies made before the 70s.
We're completely fucked in terms of the cultural legacy of cinema. How many people watch the great British comedies nowdays, for example? Dad's Army, Ripping Yarns, Fawlty Towers, and all that stuff? I'd wager it's a rapidly shrinking pool. And digital distribution is making it so much worse because people no longer pick up a random DVD and watch it.

>Those films are near universally exported around the globe
Hollywood tries to be as relatable to people around the world as they can. It's hard for things like Asian culture to be relatable to the whole world. It would also be great for them to understand the process of storytelling through a short period of time. They have great media as far as anime goes and television goes now. I just wish they would understand that film needs to be treated differently. Their media heavily relies on character arcs for the plotting, more instead of theme and other narrative devices. It gets a bit formulaic, but they still understand a lot of aspects, the thing is, those aspects don't translate to film well most of the time. They also can't be as out there as they want to be.

Asians have always been a creepy, bug like (a hivemind of ants, if you will) race of people

We like their kung fu flicks because that's the most emotion you'll get out of them.

>a third death note movie
neat. will watch tonight.

Departures 2008 was pretty good, I am sure there are around 10 Jap films that are in the good-great range

That's racist

so they're nothing more than hipster popcorn eaters. tell them to fuck off.

>If this had been an AMERICAN film, with a huge American company pushing it, it would have made hundreds of millions of dollars.

that's not true at all. ethan hawke is not a huge draw in the states and the trailer made it look like some generic dogshit thriller. american made movies flop all the time here if they aren't carefully marketed and loaded to the brim with star power, nostalgia, or a brand name. most original ideas, regardless of how well executed they may be, flop because the average joe just wants to see the same thing over and over again.

I think that's why everyone's nervous about Blade Runner 2049.

>i'm a weeb
>why isn't everyone else a weeb

because not everyone else has a mental disorder

Departures is good, but the director has only made a couple of good movies. Check out "When the Last Sword is Drawn" if you want something else good from the same director. Nobody Knows, Hana-Bi, and The Taste of Tea are all pretty good and have similar up and down vibes of emotion.

I've seen about thirty or forty Japanese films I'd consider good since 1990. There just isn't really any consistent directors I'm aware of other than Kitano.

I don't tell my friends to 'fuck off' just because we have differences in taste or opinions, that would be autistic.

Japanese society is simply too conservative to produce Kino
The only good Nip currently working is Koreeda

fuck off weeb

because they don't look like anime at all. Most anime have european-looking characters, with a few exceptions (gantz comes to mind, the live action characters are believable, or ichi the killer), so why watch a shittier live action version of your favorite animu? The only one that looks good is JoJo by Takashi Miike.

>The only one that looks good is JoJo by Takashi Miike.
I actually watched that and it was just okay. Like watching Japanese made capeshit. A bit restrained for miike but still cool though.

1. No will to export, so filthy gaijin do not get to watch
2. No will to negotiate on export, so they get cockblocked by some cinema importer wanting to dubbed before it can go to theaters, even if he will bend over if pressured in conversation
3. Movies can get a lot of viewers, if they are good, and got a good marked push to get people to start viewing them

This is true, except Aus movies is crippled with the same problem that most continental Euro movies are for export: No will to export them, and no will to marked them

>Hating weebs on an anime discussion forrum

I'd say Miike's got a few decent films as well. Nowhere near the level of Kitano but he has some good stuff.