In Japan, the Death Note manga story was made into 2 live action films. Having just seen them recently, I'm highly recommending them to any fan of the manga or anime series.
(Caution: spoilers may follow)
As you can imagine, trying to condense a 13 volume manga series into 2 films is going to be a tough task, and much detail must be sacrificed in any such endeavor. However, given how well plotted the manipulations were, it makes me wonder what the problem is with American film adaptations when liberties are taken with plot. Very often a movie butchers a book's plot so severely that if you have read the original work, the film is completely un-enjoyable.
This is far from the case with "Death Note" and "Death Note: The Last Name". There are a number of deviations from the plot, and of course many of the scenes are omitted, but all of these changes are done with close attention to the integrity of the concept and characters behind Death Note.
The movies never introduce characters like Mello or Near from the manga, but they compensate by keeping the drama and competition between Light and L extremely captivating. Light's manipulation of characters using the powers of the Death Note goes into uncharted territory with these films, although the underlying twisted motives will ring familiar bells with fans of the manga or anime series. I recommend checking these films out! You can probably find them under foreign films-Japanese. There are also plans for an American Live Action re-make of this story, so watch for that too...
