A liquid crystal display device enabling a reduction in size and costs associated with the system as a whole, starting to display images without image distortion at power on time, and turning the screen off without image retention at power off time, a method of controlling the liquid crystal display device, and a mobile terminal incorporating the liquid crystal display device as a screen display. On a glass substrate (11) provided with a display unit (12), peripheral drive circuits such as an interface circuit (13), a timing generator (14), a reference voltage driver (15), a CS driver (18), a VCOM driver (19), and a voltage regulation circuit (20), together with a horizontal driver (16) and a vertical driver (17) are disposed. When a display reset control pulse PCI is supplied from an external source, a predetermined voltage is written into pixels while a CS voltage and a VCOM voltage adjusted to the same level as that of a pixel voltage are applied to a common-electrode-side. This allows the screen to turn white in a normally white type liquid crystal display, and to turn black in a normally black type liquid crystal display. Image distortion at power on/off time can thus be prevented.