Forum - View topicINTEREST: U.K. Live-Action 'Death Note' Film Borrows Plot Elements, Title of Popular Manga
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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So, is this illegal? Are they going to get sued? I'm not sure how Japanese copyright laws work, but this seems like pretty blatant theft.
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Lostlorn Forest
 Posts: 544 Location: USA |
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Whoa, is that Davos Seaworth? I'll definitely have to check this out....
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jonnyMAGNUM
Posts: 7 |
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The film is on Netflix, under the original title Let Us Prey. I had pushed it aside as another straight-to-VOD/DVD junk, but now my intrigue is peaked.
Last edited by jonnyMAGNUM on Thu Dec 24, 2015 5:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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So, are we saying it's the Japanese's "fault" for retitling it, or the UK film's fault for being a baldfaced "I've heard of manga and you haven't" theft?
Because the linked articles keep trying to blame the Japanese, for some odd reason. 
(Actually, I give the Japanese marketers credit for calling the UK producers on the carpet and cutting their losses before they happen--I've seen other amusing Asian retitlings, like when a certain slumming Terry Gilliam film opened in Hong Kong as "Van Helsing II: the Brothers Grimm".) But hey, it's not like WE'VE ever had baldfaced intentional anime plagiarisms in the US to put one over on the gullible and anime-illiterate (aheminception)... |
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CailinBainne
Posts: 1 |
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My boyfriend is actually really good friends of the director of this movie. I do have to say it's grasping a straws. If you were to watch the movie without the knowledge of its Japanese name you wouldn't make such links. The movie is completely different and I don't even think the director has watched one episode of anime a day in his life. It's a fairly good movie especially if you know its really low budget and his first ever feature length. But when I watched it I didn't make the links. And even with the knowledge of the title change I still can't. But in saying that it's a really dumb move on japan's part cause it's messing up the view on a movie by naming it after a really famous anime. Just saying. Don't go running to conclusions without knowing everything
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Venus_Angel9
 Posts: 55 |
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Hum, yeah., I actually watched this movie earlier this year and no, it's nothing like Death note. The notebook thing, .. spoiler[the notebook doesn't kill anyone, it's just a list of names of people who've done bad stuff and are condemned and the rest of the movie is basically figuring out what have they done and who is the guy delivering "justice". He dosn´t even have to find out the names, they just appear magically written there] Stating that Six is an angel of death is actually a spoiler spoiler[as this is something related to the end of the movie (and she isn't one originally) and it is actually never clear if the guy who actually does the "revenge" is what he says he is or if he's lying and it's actually the devil,] which is IMHO the coolest thing about this movie.
It's not a great world changing movie but I was entertained. It's more like an action thing with a supernatural twist. But seriously, I've read the Death Note manga, and watched the anime 3 times (not that I'm a superfan, I just happened to know other people who wanted to watch it and I do not lend out my dvds since there was an... accident  I like it enough though and I would notice if something I was watching was ripping off the story).
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Ulinox
 Posts: 687 |
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Would watch for sure. Looks better than the anime.
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Wandering Samurai
 Posts: 875 Location: USA |
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Agreed. I'm liking it for the "original" title it came out under. |
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minakichan
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As easy as it would be, can't blame the UK filmmakers for this one. They made their own film (mediocre, it seems from reviews, but that's not relevant) and it's the Japanese distributor who decided to rename it Death Note.
Very sketchy. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2778 Location: Toronto |
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I think comparing this to Asylum films like Transmorphers is a bit rude to the makers of Let Us Prey. Those are made solely to capitalize on the pending success of Hollywood tentpoles. This situation reminds me of Frozen Land, a movie made in earnest to be its own thing that got retitled by a distributor to tie it into something much more popular.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14796 |
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It's not like Japan doesn't already re-title Western films to suit their needs.
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