X (1996)

The story takes place in 1999, the Year of Destiny, and the beginning of the end of the world. The future of the universe rests on one young man, Kamui Shiro, who must destroy either the ... See full summary »

Director:

Rintaro

Writers:

Mami Watanabe (script), Mick Nekoi (manga) (as Clamp)

Stars:

Tôru Furusawa, Alan Marriott, Tomokazu Seki

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tôru Furusawa	...	Seishirô (voice)
Alan Marriott	...	Kamui Shirou (voice)
Tomokazu Seki	...	Kamui (voice)
Adam Henderson	...	Fuma Monou (voice)
Larissa Murray	...	Kotari Monou (voice)
Ken Narita	...	Fûma (voice)
Denica Fairman	...	Kanoe (voice)
Stacey Gregg	...	Hinoto (voice) (as Stacey Jefferson)
Junko Iwao	...	Kotori (voice)
Mike Fitzpatrick	...	Sorata Arisugawa (voice)
David Harris	...	Aoki Seiichirou (voice)
Atsuko Takahata	...	Kanoe (voice)
Rupert Degas	...	Shuogo Asagi (voice)
Yûko Minaguchi	...	Hinoto (voice)
Nigel Whitmey	...	Yuto Kigai (voice)

Storyline

The story takes place in 1999, the Year of Destiny, and the beginning of the end of the world. The future of the universe rests on one young man, Kamui Shiro, who must destroy either the Dragons of Earth or the Dragons of Heaven - two opposing armies. He alone must decide whether humanity should be destroyed to create a purified universe, or whether it should be protected to preserve civilization. Two oracles, the sisters Hinoto and Kanoe foresee the coming of the Dragons and predict opposite outcomes. Each sister gathers strength and ammunition to insure her own vision for the future. However, neither sister realizes that there is one man who has an even greater power than the Dragons, and that ultimately he will determine the fate of the earth. Which sister will prevail and how does Kamui fit into their struggle? The answer to this question will forever affect humanity.

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Plot Keywords:

older actors younger roles | crying | dying | flight | friendship | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence/gore and some nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character Shougo Asagi never existed in the original manga, and was created specifically for the film. He takes the place of Kakyou Kuzuki, the bedridden Dragon of Earth dreamseer that appears in the manga and who later appears in the television series. Furthermore, Shougo's power over water was originally Yuto's power in the manga.

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Quotes

Kanoe: These obscenities that man has created, the corruption, the pollution, all these must be annihilated, nature will reclaim its dominion, the Earth will breathe again; but first must come the apocalypse.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits, there is a brief aerial shot of Tokyo, with everything save the Tokyo Tower in rubble as sakura blossoms flutter by.

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Alternate Versions

Nudity was blurred out when aired on when aired on the Sci-Fi Channel (Ani-Monday).

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Connections

References Macbeth (1971)

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Soundtracks

Forever Love
Written by Yoshiki
Performed by Yoshiki (as X Japan)

User Reviews

Only if you understand it

X is an excellect film if you understand it, nothing irritates me more than a bad movie critic, to be a good one you must understand what you are critiquing...

One the title X makes perfect sense:

Definitions of X

1) a symbol to often symbolize an unknown in mathematics.

2) the 24th letter in the English Alphabet

3) The Roman Numeral for the number 10.

Words that contain X such as X-ray, X-generation, X Day (an unknown day) are often used in everyday language, this X brings a sense of something unknown or not being able to be understood. Everyone would know the ever Famous "X Files" with FBI agents Scully and Molder that try to explain the cases of the supernatural, the X in that would be a same meaning to that. So Clamp's X would have the same meaning too.

In X there is a combination of previous works such as "Tokyo Babylon" and "Clamp School Detectives", (which one should see before the movie X anyway) apart from that X also contains elements of the supernatural such as "Ying Yang Shu", "Feng Shui and people with super powers which adds yet another mystical atmosphere to it.

From the points above, X definitely is not a simple or single story, but is very complicated with many different elements. It looks like the "unknown" theory definitely suits or is incorporated in some way in the title.

2 swords, the opposing Ten no Ryu and Chi no Ryu could also be seen in the Structure of the letter "X" and how there are opposite sides to everything.

So basically, X is good if you have the mental capacity to understand it, it's not a film for someone expecting simplicity, it's a film for people who like to get more out of a movie experience outside of pretty colours.

Details

Official Sites:

Manga Entertainment

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

3 August 1996 (Japan)

Also Known As:

X/1999

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,672, 12 March 2000

Gross USA:

$143,355

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$266,914

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Entertainment Inc., Bandai Visual Company, Clamp

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1