20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End (2008)

Years after a schoolboy writes a book of prophecies, a mysterious super-villain uses it as his master-plan of world destruction.

Director:

Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Writers:

Yasushi Fukuda (screenplay), Takashi Nagasaki (screenplay)

Stars:

Toshiaki Karasawa, Etsushi Toyokawa, Takako Tokiwa

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toshiaki Karasawa	...	Kenji Endô
Etsushi Toyokawa	...	Otcho
Takako Tokiwa	...	Yukiji
Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Yoshitsune
Hidehiko Ishizuka	...	Maruo
Takashi Ukaji	...	Mon-chan
Hiroyuki Miyasako	...	Keroyon
Katsuhisa Namase	...	Donkey
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Yamane
Kuranosuke Sasaki	...	Fukubê
Shirô Sano	...	Yan-bô / Mâ-bô
Mirai Moriyama	...	Comic Artist
Kanji Tsuda	...	Moroboshi
Takashi Fujii	...	Friendship Party Promotor
Hanako Yamada	...	Friendship Party Promotor

Storyline

In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighborhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow.

---

Plot Keywords:

tokyo japan | osaka japan | london england | bangkok thailand | punctuation in title | 

---

Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi

---

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption (2009)

---

Soundtracks

20th Century Boy
Written by Marc Bolan
Performed by T. Rex

User Reviews

"Friends say it's fine, friends say it's good..."

Could 20th Century Boys be the Japanese Watchmen? Like in the case of Alan Moore's masterpiece, Urasawa's sprawling story covers the cultural myths and obsessions of the past century: from the nuclear catastrophe following the war to the western cultural influences, conformism and totalitarian tendencies, the demilitarized, defenseless Japan, the economic boom of the sixties . Even a touch of mecha and the pervasiveness of media in society.

Judging the movie, however, can be more difficult: its competently shot and acted, but like most transpositions, it makes its manga origin very clear, which can be appalling for the manga-illiterate in the audience, which at the projections I was sighed, left early or giggled in all the wrong places. Sound editing was awful, but it might be a result of the copy I saw.

Where the film could use some help is in the editing. Fans will appreciate the attempt to be faithful to the original source, but movies simply work in a different way: act II is too long, and the final climax and resolution is reduced to a few choppy scenes. It might definitely look better when parts 2 and 3 are released.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Thai English

Release Date:

30 August 2008 (Japan)

Also Known As:

20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$38,231,562

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cine Bazar, Dentsu, Nippon Television Network (NTV)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

142 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1