125 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama, Asaka Seto, Shigeki Hosokawa, Shido Nakamura

Watch [the trailer] on YouTube.

DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME (Japan, 2006)
New York Premiere

139 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama, Erika Toda, Shunji Fujimura, Shido Nakamura

Watch [the trailer] on YouTube.

DEATH NOTE Showtimes:
FRI July 6, 8:30pm and SUN July 8, 3:30pm at Japan Society [Buy Tickets]; Director Shusuke Kaneko will attend both screenings.

DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME Showtimes:
SAT July 7, 5:45pm and SUN July 8, 6:00pm at Japan Society [Buy Tickets]; Director Shusuke Kaneko will attend both screenings.

Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.

DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME aren’t just movies, they are bona fide international phenomena. Based on a manga that has sold over 20 million copies in Japan, the two movies were released in 2006 and while DEATH NOTE kicked The Da Vinci Code out of the top slot in Japan and was number one at the box office for two weeks, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, released a few months later, was number one for four straight weeks and the two movies together drew more viewers than any other Japanese film in 2006. They set box office records in Hong Kong and across Asia, a big budget spin-off is in the works and in China the government has pulled the Death Note manga off the market because they fear that it is "...apt to harm the physical and mental health of young people." In our book, that’s a ringing endorsement.

Given the jaded tastes of American audiences, what’s most impressive about all this is that the DEATH NOTE films aren’t blood-soaked shockers, or sci fi extravaganzas, but fast-paced, cat and mouse thrillers with a goth edge. Disillusioned law student, Light Yagami (Tetsuya Fujiwara), chances upon a notebook lying in the street one day and he quickly discovers that if he writes the name of anyone inside its pages they instantly die. Light embarks on a plan to kill all the criminals in the world and bring justice to the planet, much to the amusement of his new companion, Ryuk, a hulking CGI God of Death with the looks and attitude of a demonic drummer from an 80’s metal band. Light slaughters millions in his criminal holocaust (“They deserve it,” he justifies) and even though the global crime rate drops 70% the cops aren’t too happy about these mass murders, and they’re aided by L (Kenichi Matsuyama), a mysterious detective who turns out to be a gangly teenager with a big brain, a sweet tooth and a taste for gamesmanship. Things get even more complicated when the Police Chief (Takeshi Kaga, Chairman Kaga on Iron Chef), who is also Light’s father, is appointed to unmask this mysterious killer.

A web-savvy, Veronica Mars-esque take on an Agatha Christie novel crossed with an Edgar Allan Poe short story, this flick is a live action manga that drops the viewer into a world where they have to hit the ground running. Shusuke Kaneko, who revitalized the Gamera franchise in the 90’s, tells his sprawling story in broad, clean strokes, eschewing visual dazzle to focus all his energy on getting as many narrative balls into the air as possible. A head-spinning head game, the DEATH NOTE movies require so much concentration and focus from the audience that their running time flies by. It’s J-horror turned into mass entertainment for a new generation.

Born in 1955 in Tokyo, Shusuke Kaneko has been a lifelong fan of kaiju and science fiction films and TV shows, both from Japan and the U.S. After graduating from college with plans to become a teacher, he changed course and joined Nikkatsu Studios as an assistant director  in 1978, where he worked for seven years on the studio's Roman porno films, while also writing anime scripts for other studios on the side. He directed his first film in 1984, an erotic comedy called Uno Koichiro no nurete utsu , and after several other films for Nikkatsu, he went freelance in 1985. Kaneko's 1988 film  Summer Vacation: 1999 , a high school drama with an all-girl cast portraying male students, was his first to be picked up for distribution outside Japan, receiving a home video release in the U.S. from New Yorker Video. In 1991, Kaneko directed the horror/comedy My Soul is Slashed , starring Ken Ogata, and in 1993 he was recruited by American producer Brian Yuzna to direct "The Cold," an English-language episode in Necronomicon, an anthology horror film based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In 1995, after lobbying hard for the job, Kaneko revived the Gamera series for Daiei Studios with  Gamera: Guardian of the Universe , and went on to direct two more highly successful entries in the trilogy, creating what many fans consider to be some of the best kaiju  films ever made. Following 1999's Gamera 3: The Revenge of Iris  and the Firestarter -inspired ESP special effects movie  Cross Fire  in 2000, Kaneko was hired by Toho to helm the 25th entry in the Godzilla series, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack , known under the more user-friendly title GMK . Four years later, Kaneko joined the production crew of the 2005 Ultraman Max  series, which was intended as a return to the feeling and nostalgia of the original late 1960s episodes, and also featured another cameo director in the form of Takashi Miike. After nearly 30 films and television projects, Kaneko had the most successful hits of his career in the Death Note  films, which were among the top box office earners in Japan in 2006, contributing to domestic cinema overtaking Hollywood films at the box office for the first time in twenty years.