Fridae

The first film, Death Note, opened in Singapore a few months ago. Adapted from a popular Japanese manga, teen audiences came in droves and turned it into one of the highest grossing foreign-language films of 2006. Surprised at box-office potency, its distributor Golden Village is releasing the second part as a year-end treat for teen audiences.

But here's a little warning: Both films are full of knotty twists and turns. If you haven't seen the first film, read this quick recap before you watch the second: Light (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a teenage boy, find a magical "death notebook" which allows him to kill someone just by writing the latter's name in its pages. With the God of Death (an animated creature voiced by Shido Nakamura) as his guide, Light assumes the pseudonym of "Kira" and uses the notebook to kill rogue politicians, hardcore criminals and other pariahs.

But the powers of the notebook prove seductive and Light soon starts to abuse them, killing even those who are innocent. Meanwhile, Light's father � a high-ranking police detective � is leading a team of officers to stop "Kira's" murders. They aided by L (Ken'ichi Matsuyama), a sulky but brilliant teenager who suspects that Light is really the "Kira" they've been hunting.

Death Note 2 picks up from where the first film left off: Light has joined his father's police team to try and crack the identity of "Kira". L is close to proving that Light is really "Kira", when another "Kira" with similar homicidal powers emerge out of nowhere...

Complex and quick-witted, this Death Note sequel impressed us once again with its elaborate plotting, clever dialogue and stylish camerawork. Running at more than 2 hours, its cat-and-mouse game packs an intellectual wallop that's not to be sniffed at. The film doesn't dumb down for the sake of teenagers, even though it is ostensibly targeted at teenagers.

Death Note 2 is a must-see for adolescents and comic fans, as well as jaded moviegoers who like to think they can predict a plot twist a mile away. This may be one movie that'll stump the latter group.