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

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 ... See full summary »

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.

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Plot Keywords:

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

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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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

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by 20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope (2009)

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Soundtracks

Ai Rock Yû
Music by Ryomei Shirai
Lyrics by Naoki Urasawa

User Reviews

Boring, stupid and nonsensical

Apparently, millions of Japanese are willing to worship a man in a mask who only talks about his childhood... and apparently, the hero of his childhood is Kenji, so one would imagine that all these idiots would leave Mr. Friend behind and go and worship Kenji instead. Right?

Nope. Instead, this cult's followers burn each other alive, blow up airports and have developed a lethal virus that completely drains the human body of all blood. Hey, I'm not opposed to daft plots when they're amusing, but 20th Century Boys pretty much lacks humour, as "mysterious" people point Kenji - the film's protagonist - in the right direction so that he can play a game in which he may or may not get to save the world.

Yeah, it's that dumb. And upon figuring out that all these terrorist attacks taking place are being scheduled by the events of a comic Kenji drew as a kid, instead of taking the said comic to the authorities on finally finding where he left it some 25-30 years ago, Kenji instead runs over to a friend's house, digs out his old guitar and jams out in the morning's early hours!

But that's perfectly logical, since Kenji once aspired to be a glam-rock star.

With a running time of well over 2 hours, I can't recall the last film I watched during which I spent almost as much time looking at the clock. Unfortunately, the sheer humdrum and stupidity of the film all got too much to bear and I eventually turned it off. I now waste even more time over this crap-fest by advising other IMDb users of its sheer awfulness.

Avoid.