20-seiki shônen: Honkaku kagaku bôken eiga (2008)

Director:

Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Writers:

Yasushi Fukuda (screenplay) and
Takashi Nagasaki (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 August 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

2000s | BBC News | Childhood Friend | Based On Manga | Rock

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Twentieth Century Boys (International: English title) (Japan: English title)
20-seiki shônen dai 1 shô: Owari no hajimari (Japan) (DVD title)
20th Century Boys (International: English title) (alternative spelling)
20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End (USA)
Twentieth Century Boys: Chapter One (International: English title)

Runtime:

142 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Thai | English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Cine Bazar

Movie Connections:

Followed by 20-seiki shônen: Dai 2 shô - Saigo no kibô (2009)

Soundtrack:

Like a Rolling Stone

"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.