20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End

August. 28,2009      
Rating:
6.6
Trailer Synopsis Cast

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 neighbourhood 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. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?

Toshiaki Karasawa as  Kenji Endô
Takako Tokiwa as  Yukiji
Teruyuki Kagawa as  Yoshitsune
Hidehiko Ishizuka as  Maruo
Takashi Ukaji as  Mon-chan
Hiroyuki Miyasako as  Keroyon
Katsuhisa Namase as  Donkey
Fumiyo Kohinata as  Yamane
Kuranosuke Sasaki as  Fukubê
Shirō Sano as  Mâ-bô

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Reviews

CommentsXp
2009/08/28

Best movie ever!

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Beanbioca
2009/08/29

As Good As It Gets

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Cheryl
2009/08/30

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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Dana
2009/08/31

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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MikesIDhasbeentaken
2009/09/01

Good, strange film this.it's tongue in cheek, live action straight out of the manga comics. You don't need to have seen any of the Manga series to tell where to origins of this film come from.the flashbacks are done well, the story is strange but flows nicely, and there is a great soundtrack.Looking forward to the next two films, as anyone who has seen this will confirm, it would have been a very annoying ending had this not already been planned to be a trilogy.This film seems to have had a relatively big budget, according to IMDb and wiki, for the type of film it is, which is good to see.

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yasuyuki kannei
2009/09/02

I saw this movie last year. I have read comic because I like this comic. Writer is Naoki Urasawa. This writer's other works is very nice, YAWARA,PLUTO, and Monster. '20th century boys' is exists to Chapter3. This movie is Chapter1. I felt that it was very interesting because I saw this movie. Hero is Kenji Endo. Story to which story of imagination spoken with friend when Kenji is child actually occurs.Book of prophecy is very terrible book. This book was written Kenji and friends. Kenji fight to Tomodati with Kenji's friends.Kenji brings up the child of the elder sister of Tomodati and Kenji.Tomodati attacks Kenji aiming at the child.The child's name is a Kannna. Kannna is a girl who has the curious power. Tomodati is very scary existence. The true colors of Tomodati is not turn out, but it is possible to expect it. I will saw next movie. I am looking forward to the next movie.

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DICK STEEL
2009/09/03

I had earlier written about comic books being rich material for filmmakers to raid and adopt them into a cinematic version, and with the success of the Death Note franchise, it's more than apparent that such movies will have its built in audience, and in this case, to skyrocket the movie to box office success.Depending on how the story is adapted, some will take liberties to gear the material for non- fans, to introduce it to a new audience. Death Note for instance, does this quite perfectly, drawing those unfamiliar with its mythos, and at the same time entertaining the fanboys. Mushishi on the other hand, assumed that one goes in with a bit of background knowledge, as it doesn't dwell too long, if at all, on the character backstory. 20th Century Boys however managed to take the middle ground, though I felt its presentation was somewhat left wanting.We're introduced to Kenji (Toshiaki Karasawa), a supermarket manager who's about to be thrown into the adventure of his life. In a school reunion, he gets acquainted with his old pals, most of whom he already cannot recognize, before they launch into a discussion of a strange series of happenings which involve the emergence of their secret logo created during their childhood. As they catch up with one another, we also learn that collectively amongst the group, they vaguely recollect their 9 members, and hence sowed some suspicion as to the identity of who the new cult leader is, one who always hide behind a mask and calls himself Kira, oops, wrong movie - "Friend".Throw into the plot yet another device in the form of a book called the Book of Prophecies, which Kenji is chief author, in somewhat of a create your own adventure with his pals, as they dream of the world coming to an end at the turn of the millennium, what with strange plagues, terrorist attacks, and a giant robot taking the place of the stay puff marshmallow man. They realize that world disasters are unfolded as per the sequence in their childhood book, and thus, with their sense of responsibility, work to try and put an end to the madness.For the first half of the movie, the story really plods on, as it took great pains to try and introduce to us the array of characters important to the series, including an infant heralded as the Chosen One. While most of the characters remain rather one-dimensional with nothing much revealed about their background despite the frequent flashbacks (some which do get repetitive), Kenji is the focus of this installment, as we see an emergence of a resistance fighter from within a mild and meek, and often clueless supermarket manager. He doesn't really strike you as charismatic or well skilled to lead a group of do-gooders, but the second half would address all those concerns.In wanting to remain unconventional, the story moves forward and back so frequently, that it'll give you a headache. It seemed to be wanting to shovel down character backgrounds incessantly, as every opportunity found to go into flashback mode, will be utilized, so much so that it becomes mentally tiring after a while to keep track of current time. Time plays an important part in the story as it hinges everything on D-Day of 31 December 2000, where a foretold apocalypse is expected to happen.And here's where it really shines, even when the arrival of D-Day involved plenty of droning pep-talking. Looking at the locations, sets, and big action sequences throughout the film, it's indeed a relatively big budget production with no qualms about throwing money to achieve some form of visual perfection. The finale is nothing short of breathtaking, and with well filled tension, though if you're not expecting this to be the first episode of an franchise, you'll find yourself swearing at its cliffhanger ending. It's not a complete story per se even though it managed to remain self-contained, as it retains just about as much mystery as it did from the onset, with nothing much revealed or addressed.For those looking into something more, I thought it had drawn some interesting parallels about the dangers of cults, and how enticing the promises made by preacher could be, with the followers blinding adhering to every word like it's the gospel. There are enough false prophets in the world, but those who can command a huge following, could grow and if their aspirations do find their way to the political arena, then just as how a manga-turned-movie would have its ready audience, then these political parties would already come with their congregation as ready supporters and voters.For the eager beavers, it's not until January that you can watch the next part, so do remember to stay until right after the end credits roll for the trailer to Part 2.

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helmutty
2009/09/04

First of all-I have not read the manga but I have heard the title before. I will base my review with nothing to do with my knowledge of the manga. Making live-action movies based on manga and comics seems to be a trend in japan. Blockbuster live-action movies like Death Note are good. So hopefully, there will be more good adaptation of manga. I say that 20th Century Boys shall be one of the good adaptation and Japanese movie. This live-action movie broke death note box office in japan. That made me more interested of how this movie will fare. I must say it is worth the hype. It is pretty intense and epic to my sayings.The story: It revolves around Kenji and his pals. They built a hideout and shared stories and stuffs. They made a story. When they grow up, the story they made up becomes true. A mysterious cult-leader called friend enters the world and wants to destroy the world. Kenji and his pal save the world. Not so easy. From there, dark secrets are spilled and they search their brains of what had happened when they were kids-their childhood. The plot is quite intense. I do not know whether it is a good apdataion but as a view of a Japanese movie, it is good.Overall: As the plot is interesting and intense, it makes me want to read the manga which I will sooner. If it interest you, do go and watch it. Stay for the cast and credit to finish and there will be the preview of the second part. I will wait for the second part with anticipation.

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