20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
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User Rating
Current user rating: 82/100 (27 votes)
Profile
- Movie: Twentieth Century Boys / 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
- Romaji: 20-seiki shonen
- Japanese: ２０世紀少年
- Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
- Assistant Director: Hisashi Kimura
- Writer: Naoki Urasawa (Manga), Yasushi Fukuda, Takashi Nagasaki, Naoki Urasawa, Yusuke Watanabe
- Producer: Nobuyuki Iinuma
- Cinematographer:
- Released: August 30, 2008
- Runtime: 142 min
- Movie Studio: Cine Bazar, Toho
- Distributor: Toho
- Language: Japanese
- Country: Japan
Plot
In the summer of 1969, Kenji was an elementary schoolboy. He built a secret base in a vacant lot with his friends Otcho, Maruo, Yoshitsune, Mon-chan, Donkey, Yukiji and Fukubee. One of their secret activities included writing in the ‘Book of Prophecy’. In their ‘Prophecy’, the children fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world, bringing about doomsday.
Years later in 1997, Kenji is the manager of a convenience store. He's given up his dream to be a rock star and has chosen to live a regular life, looking after his sister's baby girl Kanna after his sister has disappeared for an undisclosed reason. His boring life is turned upside down one day when his old classmate, Donkey dies mysteriously and then an entire family in the neighborhood disappears.
At the same time, there's a lot of talk about a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend. A strange chain of events follow, which exactly duplicate the events described in the ‘Book of Prophecy.’ Kenji and his former classmates are shocked to learn this horrible truth. If things are happening exactly as described in the ‘Book of Prophecy,’ then Friend's intention is to fulfill the doomsday prophecy. And Friend is most likely one of the kids they used to play with...
As the events in the ‘Book of Prophecy’ unfold in their lives, Kenji and his former classmates decide to take on the villain.
Time passes and now it's December 31st, 2000. This is the day described in the ‘Book of Prophecy’ as the day of mankind's demise.
Notes
- “20th Century Boys” was originally serialized in a manga magazine, ‘Shogakukan Big Spirits Comics,’ between 1999 and 2007.
- The manga series has been translated and published in 11 countries, and received many awards both domestically and internationally, including the ‘Best Prize for a Series’ at Angoulême International Comics Festival in France.
- Related titles:
- 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End | 20-seiki shonen (2008)
- 20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope | 20-seiki shonen: dai-2-sho (2009)
- 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption | 20-seiki shonen: Saishu-sho - Bokura no hata (2009)
Cast
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Trailer
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Film Festivals
- 2009 (9th) Nippon Connection - April 15th-19th - Nippon Cinema
- 2009 (8th) New York Asian Film Festival - June 19th-July 5th
- 2008 (41st) Sitges Film Festival - October 2nd-10th
- 2009 (13th) Fantasia Film Festival - July 9th-29th
- 2009 (29th) Hawaii International Film Festival - October 15th-25th - Spotlight on Japan
Ki Says:
Feb 08 2009 2:48 pm
“Twentieth Century Boys” is the first chapter of an ambitious trilogy based on Naoki Urasawa’s 22 volume sci-fi manga of the same name. The story covers a lengthy period of 35 years and deals with nothing less than the impending destruction of planet Earth. The trilogy also features a massive budget of 6 billion yen ($65 million USD) and an equally massive cast of over 300 performers. The movie is also helmed by well known television and movie director Yukihiko Tsutsumi (Trick the Movie / Happily Ever After / The Bandage Club) and produced by Nippon Television. As you can tell, there’s a lot of hype & expectation behind “Twentieth Century Boys.”
In “Twentieth Century Boys,” Kenji Endo (Toshiaki Karasawa) is a mild-mannered mid 30′ish guy, still single & works in his family owned convenience store. While many of his friends opted for careers in business, Kenji first pursued his dreams of becoming a rock musician. Those plans were put on hold when his sister mysteriously disappeared and left her infant baby under the care of Kenji and his mother.
One day, Kenji learns from his pal Maruo of an upcoming elementary school reunion. When Kenji learns that his childhood crush Yukijii will be attending the reunion he decides to go.
At the reunion talk quickly turns to the mysterious cult group led by a man known as Friend. The cult group uses as its symbol a logo that Kenji & his friends created as childhood friends. Furthermore, the man known as Friend makes prophesies in the exact manner as the story Kenji & friends wrote in a comic book as children. Since only a handful of people ever knew about the comic, suspicions arise between the friends about the true identity of the man known as Friend.
Because of the expansive manga that the movie is based on, Twentieth Century Boys runs for 142 minutes and frequently jumps between the 1960’s, 1999-2000, and 2015. For some, they may find the non-linear story telling to be disconcerting, but I found the narrative style to be one of the better aspects of the film. With the story telling style employed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi the viewer usually discovers information in real time with the main characters, enhancing the mystery aspects of the film. This is especially so in the film’s stronger first half.
Once the backdrop is completely laid out, the film then tackles the meat of the story: the battle between Kenji & friends against the cult group led by Friend. During this time, the filmmakers glosses over some details making certain scenes stick out like a sore thumb. As an example, after Kenji discovers the comic book he drew as a child (under his just destroyed convenience store), Kenji runs over to Maruo’s house to play his old guitar like a man possessed by the spirit of Jimi Hendrix. If that sounds weird to you, it looked even weirder on film. Shortly afterwards, Kenji turns from innocent victim to the most wanted terrorist in the world, without any details given (hunh?).
The climax of the film revolves around an epic battle between between Kenji & friends against a giant robot loaded with biological weapons. Presumably, this is where a significant portion of the film's budget went into, but you really wouldn't know from watching those scenes. F/X are underwhelming to say the least and choreography is just as underwhelming. One of the more frustrating aspects of the climatic battle scene was watching bad-ass Otcho (Etsushi Toyokawa) watch the entire battle behind a locked iron gate door ("C'mon man, get your ass out there and do something! This is a freaking movie!)".
Finally, for a film inspired by the music of T. Rex, “Twentieth Century Boys” features a noticeably weak soundtrack. Rock music is used only sparingly and when it is, there’s a heavy factor of cheese to it. Like its counterpart, “Death Note,” western rock music used in a manga inspired Japanese film still has an odd feel to it.
“Twentieth Century Boys” isn’t a film that will be loved by all. For instance, people who rarely watch Japanese films may find the constant introduction of different characters to be disconcerting. Couple this with the non-linear story telling and I’m guessing a good portion of movie goers may find themselves lost. As stated before, I found the non-linear story-telling to be effective and there’s always the inter-titles stating the year for anyone that finds themselves confused. For myself, the weaker aspects occurred in the movie’s second half. Specifically, battle scenes were underwhelming & a level cheesiness was introduced not found in the extremely entertaining first half. Come to think of it, “Twentieth Century Boys” comes across a lot like a more commercial version of Sion Sono’s “The Suicide Club.” Fans of manga inspired films like “Death Note” should enjoy “Twentieth Century Boys,” as well as fans of blockbuster films in general. For others, it's a toss up.